Less than six years after acquiring Cordis Corp. from Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health Inc. is selling the troubled cardiovascular device manufacturer to private equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC for roughly $1 billion. Shares of the medical products and drugs distributor (NYSE:CAH) were up 2.93% to $57.35 at close on Friday.

Having rung the bell in phase II last summer, Ovid Therapeutics Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. signed a pact giving the latter global rights to develop and commercialize soticlestat, a first-in-class inhibitor of cholesterol 24-hydroxylase for the treatment of developmental and epileptic encephalopathies including Dravet syndrome (DS) and Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS).

Lured by what Amgen Inc. CEO Bob Bradway called a "compelling opportunity" to strengthen the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company's oncology portfolio and support its international expansion strategy, Amgen on March 4 moved to buy South San Francisco-based Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. for $38 per share, or about $1.9 billion.

Five years after its initial investment in Maverick Therapeutics Inc., Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. is exercising its option to buy the privately held company for a pre-negotiated up-front payment plus development and regulatory milestones of up to $525 million.

DUBLIN – Grifols SA is acquiring Gigagen Inc. outright by paying $80 million for the remaining 56% of the company’s equity it does not already own. Its total outlay comes to $115 million, as it had previously acquired a 35% stake in South San Francisco-based Gigagen back in 2017.

HONG KONG – Lianbio Co. Ltd. has inked a deal for the development and commercialization of Reviral Ltd.’s sisunatovir, picking up rights to the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) candidate in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore in exchange for an up-front cash payment of $14 million and development and commercial milestone payments of up to $105 million.

PERTH, Australia – Genetic Technologies Ltd. signed a co-exclusive licensing deal with U.S.-based central lab Infinity Biologix LLC (IBX) for the production, sale and distribution of Genetic Technology’s COVID-19 serious disease risk test in the U.S. Branded as Genetype, the genotyping test combines a patient’s clinical profile with their genetic information to compute a patient’s risk of developing severe disease from COVID-19.

Lured by what Amgen Inc. CEO Bob Bradway called a "compelling opportunity" to strengthen the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based company's oncology portfolio and support its international expansion strategy, Amgen on March 4 moved to buy South San Francisco-based Five Prime Therapeutics Inc. for $38 per share, or about $1.9 billion.