DUBLIN – Having spent more than 150 years devoted to marketing tobacco, Philip Morris International Inc. is now embracing human health and wellness as part of what it calls a “beyond nicotine” strategy, under which it has tabled a £1.50 (US$2.07) per share offer for Vectura Group plc. The offer implies an enterprise value of £852 million or about $1.2 billion for Chippenham, U.K.-based Vectura, which majors in formulation and device development for inhaled drugs.

Healthcare Capital Corp. (HCC), a special purpose acquisition company, will combine with Alpha Tau Medical Ltd. to create a Nasdaq-listed company with an implied pro forma equity value of approximately $1 billion. Gross proceeds from the transaction, expected to close by year end 2021, are projected to total $367 million.

Hyerfine Inc. and Liminal Sciences Inc. have joined a growing field of med-tech startups that are combining with blank check companies as an alternative path for venture-backed companies to an initial public offering (IPO). On Thursday, the companies announced a three-way combination with Healthcor Catalio Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in a deal valued at approximately $580 million.

Biopharma deal-making activity continues to keep the same pace as 2020, but the value of completed mergers and acquisitions is still painfully languishing in comparison with other recent years. While pandemic partnerships appear to be falling, oncology and regenerative medicine are driving the high-money deals, as are an increasing number of billion-dollar pacts. Meanwhile preclinical efforts account for about 23% of this year’s total value, and the amounts of up-front payments, particularly for clinical-stage products, are rising.

A collaboration between Oncosec Medical Inc. and Merck and Co. that yielded positive phase II study data has paved the way for a phase III study between the two companies. Oncosec’s DNA-plasmid interleukin-12 (IL-12) Tavo (tavokinogene telseplasmid) will be combined with Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in a randomized, global phase III study for treating late-stage metastatic melanoma.

GE Healthcare and Sophia Genetics SA partnered to develop new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered analytics and workflow solutions to improve patient matching with cancer therapies.

Surmodics Inc. has acquired Vetex Medical Ltd., a Galway, Ireland-based company focused on venous clot removal, for $39.9 million. The move gives Surmodics a second FDA-cleared mechanical thrombectomy device, Revene, to treat venous vasculature, adding to its Pounce arterial thrombus retrieval system. Founded in 2016, privately held Vetex’s sole product is the Revene thrombectomy catheter. The device received FDA clearance in December 2020 and CE mark approval in May for the mechanical declotting and controlled and selected infusion of physician-specified fluids, including thrombolytics – clot-busting drugs – in the peripheral vasculature.

Advaxis Inc.’s long journey is ending happily by way of a merger with Biosight Ltd. that leaves the new firm with $50 million to help advance aspacytarabine (BST-236), a prodrug of cytarabine for acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes.