With a $39 billion offer in hand, Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. is the target of what could be the third largest takeover to date of a pure play biotech company. At a 45% premium, the proposed transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021, is largely applauded by analysts who point to three years of languishing stock prices despite the promise of the Boston-based company’s C5 complement franchise and a sturdy pipeline.
Cambridge, Mass.-based Relay Therapeutics Inc. has signed a lucrative worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, for the development and commercialization of its compound, RLY-1971, a potent inhibitor of Src homology region 2 domain-containing phosphatase-2 (SHP2) that is being investigated in a phase I dose-escalation study in patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors.
In the biggest deal of a year packed with massive deals, Astrazeneca plc will buy Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a cash and stock transaction at $175 per share totaling $39 billion.
Gilead Sciences Inc.’s move to grab Myr GmbH for about €1.15 billion (US$1.39 billion) in cash up front, with €300 million if the latter’s Hepcludex (bulevirtide) wins FDA clearance, put chronic hepatitis delta virus (HDV) in the headlines and benefited the stock of another player in the space: Eiger Biopharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:EIGR), which closed at $10.27, up $1.51, or 17%.
Roche Holding AG has revealed a partnership with Moderna Inc. involving the use of the Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S antibody test in the latter’s mRNA-1273 vaccine research trials. The news comes shortly after Roche received emergency use authorization from the U.S. FDA for the antibody test.
DUBLIN – Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH is paying up to €1.18 billion (US$1.4 billion) to acquire antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer NBE-Therapeutics AG. The deal includes an undisclosed up-front payment, plus development and regulatory milestones linked to the progress of NBE’s pipeline of clinical and preclinical ADC programs.
Fresh off hitting key regulatory milestones in Europe and the U.S. for its investigational cholestatic liver disease therapy, maralixibat, Mirum Pharmaceuticals Inc. has secured a $210 million deal with Oberland Capital Management LLC supporting the drug's potential commercialization and the company's pipeline development plans.
HONG KONG – Taipei, Taiwan-based Pharmaengine Inc. has signed a collaboration and licensing deal with Cambridge, U.K.-based Sentinel Oncology Ltd. for the latter’s checkpoint kinase 1 inhibitor, SOL-578. Through the agreement, Sentinel will receive an exclusivity payment and Pharmaengine will fund the IND-enabling studies.
LONDON – Retinai Medicine AG reported a three-year master agreement with Novartis AG to apply its artificial intelligence (AI) tools in ophthalmology clinical trials. The first project will look at how machine learning can be used to speed up and improve the interpretation of optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of patients with neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Atara Biotherapeutics Inc. licensed a pair of mesothelin-directed CAR T treatments, ATA-2271 and ATA-3271, to Bayer AG for $60 million up front with the potential for $610 million in development, regulatory and commercialization milestone payments. Atara is also eligible for tiered royalties that peak in the low double-digit percentage of net sales of the two drugs. South San Francisco-based Atara will provide translational and clinical manufacturing services for the two drugs that will be reimbursed by Bayer.
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