The pairing of Mallinckrodt plc and Endo Inc. is expected to create a pharma heavyweight that will generate $3.6 billion in 2025 revenue after the duo combines their generic pharmaceuticals businesses and Endo’s sterile injectables setup. Terms call for Dublin-based Endo shareholders to collect $80 million in cash and own 49.9% of the combined firm. Owners of stock in Mallinckrodt will hold the rest of the new entity in the arrangement, which bears an enterprise value of $6.7 billion and is expected to close in the second half of this year.

The Vivani Medical Inc. combination appears to be over less than three years since its inception after the company reported plans to spin off Cortigent, the division that develops brain implants. Vivani said it plans to create two focused companies dedicated to driving current and future value in their respective therapeutic areas.

In what it says is the biggest obesity deal to date, Zealand Pharma A/S has signed up Roche AG to a potential $5.3 billion global collaboration and license agreement to develop petrelintide, an amylin analog that is currently in phase IIb development. The two companies will co-develop and co-commercialize petrelintide and combination products, including a fixed-dose combination of petrelintide and CT-388, Roche’s dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist.

There have been plenty of multi-billion-dollar mega mergers in the past few years but most have fallen short of their goals. In the latest edition of the BioWorld Insider podcast, Karen Carey, BioWorld’s senior managing editor and chief analyst, unpacked the details in 21 of the biggest M&As and found very few have turned out to be good deals for the buyer.

Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH terminated its second metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) alliance on March 6, ending an $870 million license agreement inked with Yuhan Corp. for dual GLP-1/FGF21 agonist, BI-3006337 (YH-25724). Yuhan said March 7 that Boehringer, of Ingelheim, Germany, returned rights to YH-25724, a dual-acting glucagon-like peptide-1 and fibroblast growth factor 21 receptor agonist, based on the counterparty’s “strategic judgement” on developing MASH therapeutics.

Astellas Pharma Inc. is setting up a joint venture with Yaskawa Electric Corp. to develop a new cell production platform using Yaskawa’s dual-arm humanoid robot called Maholo.

Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc is buying Chimerix Inc. for $8.55 a share in cash, bringing the deal in at about $935 million. Jazz expands its cancer pipeline with the new acquisition’s lead candidate, dordaviprone, a small molecule for treating a rare, aggressive glioma that’s often found in children and young adults.