Stryker Corp., of Kalamazoo, Mich., is continuing its string of buys, this time scooping up Shirley, Mass.-based Mobius Imaging LLC, which focuses on point-of-care imaging technology, and its sister company, Cardan Robotics. In an all-cash transaction, Stryker will pay about $370 million up front and up to $130 million of contingent payments associated with development and commercial milestones.

DUBLIN – Zambon SpA is acquiring Breath Therapeutics BV for €140 million (US$155.8 million) up front plus up to €360 million more in regulatory and commercial milestones linked to the progress of Breath's drug-device combo, which is currently in phase III development for bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), a fatal form of airway inflammation that can arise in lung transplant recipients.

Altimmune Inc. will acquire Spitfire Pharma Inc. and its lead candidate, SP-1373 (to be renamed ALT-801), a GLP-1/glucagon receptor co-agonist for treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Keeping with the trend of high-value biopharma deals, the second quarter of 2019 logged another eight partnerships worth $1 billion or more, with Gilead Sciences Inc. a party to three of them.

Bracco Imaging SpA. is buying prostate cancer imaging specialist Blue Earth Diagnostics Ltd. for $450 million, acquiring full rights to Axumin (F18-fluciclovine), a PET radiocontrast agent originally developed by Chicago-based GE Healthcare.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s board dodged a dissident shareholder bullet three years ago, but the San Diego-based biotech is back in the crosshairs of billionaire investor and activist shareholder Carl Icahn, who again is seeking to nominate a new slate of board members to pull the trigger on a company sale. Given Icahn’s personal track record in the sector over the past few years – ImClone Systems Inc., MedImmune Inc. and Genzyme Corp. all landed acquisitions, though he was unsuccessful in facilitating a sale of Biogen Idec Inc. – Amylin’s days as an independent firm could be numbered. Certainly there are...