More than a quarter of all biopharma/nonprofit deals and grant awards in 2021, as well as 79% of the disclosed funding, targets the COVID-19 pandemic, following a trend that began in the early months of last year as SARS-CoV-2 reared its ugly head.
Endologix LLC said Tuesday that it has completed the acquisition of Pq Bypass Inc., a privately held company developing a novel technology for treating severe peripheral artery disease (PAD). Pq Bypass’ Detour system is currently being studied in a U.S. and European clinical trial, DETOUR2.
Consolidation in diagnostics continues apace, with Diasorin SpA set to take over Luminex Corp. in an all-cash deal that values the multiplex diagnostics and molecular testing specialist at $1.8 billion. At $37 per share, the price is a 23% premium to the Luminex (NASDAQ:LMNX) share price on Feb. 23, which is when rumors of the acquisition began to circulate, and 12% above the close last Friday, April 8.
With less uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, the biopharma industry appears on track to shift efforts back to its internal programs and possibly meet, if not exceed, the record-breaking deal level of 2020. Strong financial markets, however, may continue to hold M&As down.
Senti Biosciences Inc. stands to receive more than $645 million in up-front, opt-in and milestone payments through a new collaboration and option agreement with Spark Therapeutics Inc.
Microsoft Corp. will purchase Nuance Communications Inc. for $19.7 billion in cash in a move that demonstrates a massive commitment to building out the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare reported in late 2020. The acquisition, which is expected to close by the end of 2021, doubles the Redmond, Wash.-based company’s total addressable market in the health care provider space, bringing it to nearly $500 billion. The size of the transaction is notable even for a company with the active acquisition history of Microsoft.
LONDON – C4X Discovery Holdings plc has out-licensed its preclinical oral interleukin-17 (IL-17) inhibitor to Sanofi SA in a potential €414 million (US$493.4 million) deal. Under the terms of the agreement, Sanofi is paying €7 million up front and a further €11 in short-term preclinical milestones, with the balance to follow on reaching development, regulatory and commercialization milestones.
In a move that Sanofi SA said will bring it an mRNA-based research platform with applications in oncology, immunology and other diseases, the company has acquired Tidal Therapeutics Inc. for $160 million up front and up to $310 million in milestone payments. The preclinical startup, led by Merrimack Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Torque Therapeutics Inc. co-founder Ulrik Nielsen, is based in Cambridge, Mass.
While strong financial markets could create merger and acquisition headwinds for med tech, the volume of both M&As and deals are rising above each of the prior three years, indicating a growing industry interest that is not always clear in the financials.
Companion diagnostics-focused Celcuity Inc. CEO Brian Sullivan said the deal with Pfizer Inc. for rights to pan-PI3K/mTOR inhibitor gedatolisib was “an organically developed opportunity, because of the research we had done on gedatolisib” in the course of investigating PI3K inhibitors. “We hadn’t shifted our strategy and said, ‘Oh, let’s start in-licensing drugs.’”
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