A research report by global investment bank Jefferies has found increased investor optimism in the health care market amid COVID-19, with respondents expecting stocks to rise throughout 2022. The Jefferies Healthcare Temperature Check summarizes the views of 500 leaders across the health care sector. Sixty percent of respondents said they believed the MSCI World Health Care Index would be higher by the end of 2022 than at present.

Acelyrin Inc. closed a $250 million series B round and, at the same time, unveiled a licensing deal with Affibody AB, involving an interleukin-17A (IL-17A) inhibitor, izokibep, which it is now testing in a pivotal trial in uveitis. Solna, Sweden-based Affibody is getting $25 million up front and could earn up to $280 million more in regulatory and sales-based milestones, as well as tiered royalties, ranging from high single digits to low double digits in percentage terms.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) will spin off its consumer health division as a stand-alone public company, leaving J&J to focus on its pharmaceutical and medical device businesses.

Without a doubt, 2021 has been a strong year for med-tech M&As, which are valued at significantly more than each of the three prior years. The industry has completed 520 M&As worth $111.7 billion so far, which is 88% more than the next highest year, 2019’s $59.48 billion. The volume is 33% more than the 391 M&As completed in 2020. In addition to completed M&As, a total of 1,376 med-tech deals, including licensings, collaborations and joint ventures, have been completed. They are valued at $1.98 billion, with only 31 deals including financial terms. The number of med-tech deals this year are only slightly below the 1,400 completed by the end of the year in 2020.

Just months after completion of its spinout from Merck & Co. Inc., Organon & Co. has revealed plans to fold in a second acquisition: the Finnish firm Forendo Pharma Ltd., which is advancing an early stage candidate for endometriosis. The deal includes $75 million up front and as much as $870 million in potential milestone payments for Forendo owner Karolinska Development AB, which said the buyout is one of the largest biotech transactions in the Nordic region. Earlier deals rounding out the company's recent story include a Merck-facilitated acquisition of Alydia Health Inc. and a July deal with Obseva SA.

With its agreement to buy Atos Medical Inc., Coloplast A/S is consolidating its position as a global leader in the chronic care market. Founded in Sweden in 1986, Atos Medical is the largest player for laryngectomy devices, holding a market share of more than 80%. It’s a bold move from the Humlebaek, Denmark-based company as it offers to pay $2.5 billion to acquire the Nottingham, U.K-based company from private equity firm Pai Partners.

Novome Biotechnologies Inc. wasn’t out shaking the trees looking for a partner in its drive to develop cellular therapies for the gut to treat chronic diseases but it found one in Genentech Inc., which was familiar with Novome’s founding work at Stanford University. Now the two have struck a multiyear collaboration to discover, engineer and develop bacterial strains expressing and delivering molecules to targets in the intestinal tract to treat diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease.

General Electric Co. reported that it was dividing the company into three “well capitalized investment-grade companies with seasoned leadership teams.” The division of the huge conglomerate will start with the tax-free spin-off of GE Healthcare Ltd. in early 2023 and the renewable energy and power business in 2024 leaving the legacy GE as an aviation-focused enterprise. The company will take a one-time hit of $2 billion in connection with the split up.

Aptose Biosciences Inc. has bought over the worldwide rights to Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s myeloid kinome inhibitor in a deal worth up to $420 million. Seoul, South Korea-based Hanmi has granted Aptose exclusive worldwide rights to HM-43239 for all indications. The candidate was developed for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia.