DUBLIN – Roche Holding AG is taking a second shot on the NLRP3 inflammasome by acquiring Dublin-based Inflazome Ltd. for €380 million (US$447.8 million) up front plus undisclosed milestones linked to the progress of its two clinical-stage candidates inzomelid and somalix. In terms of cash on the table, the deal is the largest yet for a portfolio of drug candidates that acts on the NLRP3 inflammasome, and it represents a profitable exit for Inflazome’s investors, who put €55 million into the company over two funding rounds, in 2016 and in 2018.
Just weeks after rejecting Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.'s overtures, Qiagen NV completed its own deal – the acquisition of the final 80.1% of diagnostics instruments company Neumodx Molecular Inc. for $248 million in cash. Qiagen, based in Hilden, Germany, bought a 19.9% stake in Neumodx back in 2018 with the option to purchase the rest for $234 million. With U.S. regulatory approval recently obtained, the deal closed with an additional $14 million in customary adjustments for cash, indebtedness, and transaction costs.
Shares of Marseilles, France-based Innate Pharma SA took a hit recently after making known the adjustment of its lucrative deal with Astrazeneca plc for monalizumab in recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN), but opinions are divided on what it means.
While its mRNA COVID-19 vaccination effort gets the most attention these days, Moderna Inc. is also moving in other directions as the company will lead mRNA discovery programs drawn from its early stage pipeline in new collaborations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Italy’s Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA. These two deals highlight the “huge opportunity for mRNA beyond SARS-CoV-2 and vaccines,” Piper Sandler analysts wrote Sept. 16.
Sinusitis implant company Intersect ENT Inc. has agreed to acquire Fiagon AB Medical Technologies, a manufacturer of electromagnetic surgical navigation systems, for €60 million (US$71.1 million). Under the terms of the agreement, Intersect ENT will pay €15 million at the time of the closing and €15 million annually for the ensuing three years.
HONG KONG – Osaka-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has divested a portfolio of non-core prescription pharmaceuticals products to Greifswald, Germany-based Cheplapharm Arzneimittel GmbH as part of an ongoing program intended to optimize and simplify its portfolio.
In the company’s largest acquisition and potentially the fifth biggest biotech M&A ever, Gilead Sciences Inc. will acquire Immunomedics Inc. for $21 billion in a move that substantially transforms Gilead’s oncology portfolio.
Though falling short of the outright takeover that some may have hoped for, Merck & Co. Inc.’s dual tie-ups with Seattle Genetics Inc. (Seagen) put the latter in solid position to shop for acquisitions of its own.
LONDON – The U.K. government has signed a €1.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) advance purchase agreement with French biotech Valneva SE, for the supply of up to 190 million doses of its attenuated COVID-19 vaccine, VLA-2001.
RSS
