Deal of the Week: Celgene/Impact

Deal of the Week: Celgene/Impact

by | Jan 12, 2018 1:57 pm | Biotechnology

Biotechnology deals are off to a strong start in 2018, thanks to the Biotech Showcase 2018 held every year alongside the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. In the first two weeks, 16 transactions were made public. This year, the Showcase registration desk was just getting into full swing on Sunday, January 7, when Celgene Corp. (NASDAQ: CELG) announced its $1.1 billion acquisition of Impact Biomedicines, a privately held biotech based in San Diego. The draw is Impact’s lead product candidate, fedratinib, a highly selective JAK2 kinase inhibitor that is being evaluated for myelofibrosis and polycythemia vera. Fedratinib was evaluated in 877 patients across 18 clinical trials. In a... Read More »
Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

by | Aug 29, 2017 3:20 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) finally found a target worth pursuing. The pharmaceutical company, perhaps best known for its high-priced hepatitis-C drugs, Harvoni and Solvadi, placed its bets on Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE), hoping to cash in on the biotech’s promising technology for fighting cancer. Gilead announced the acquisition of Kite Pharma for $180.00 per share, valuing the company at approximately $11.9 billion. The price represents a 29% premium to Kite’s closing price on August 25, 2017. Kite Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes novel cancer immunotherapy products. It is developing a pipeline of engineered... Read More »

First Half of 2016 Shows Strength in M&A

by | Aug 11, 2016 7:53 pm | Biotechnology, eHealth, Long-Term Care, Pharmaceuticals, Private Equity

Ever since the rally in health care mergers and acquisitions began in 2014, we’ve been waiting for the inevitable slam-on-the-brakes quarter. That rally was sparked by the advent of newly insured families and individuals entering the healthcare market, beginning on January 1, 2014. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010, health care M&A topped 1,000 transactions that year and has never looked back. Isn’t it about time for the party to end? Not according to our data for the first six months of 2016, compared with the same period in 2014 and 2015. (But if you read our monthly M&A roundup on page 18, you may have second thoughts.) In the first half of 2016, deal volume... Read More »

Kite Pharma Soars with Two T-Cell Acquisitions

by | Jul 29, 2016 4:09 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

Kite Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE) has been busy lately, announcing two separate license deals in the last week of July. On July 25, it acquired the exclusive worldwide rights to technology that advances the development of off-the-shelf allogeneic T-cell therapies from renewable pluripotent stem cells, also known as the ATO system, in a deal with the University of California, Los Angeles. In connection with this agreement, Kite entered into a sponsored research agreement with UCLA to support ongoing preclinical research for the ATO system. Two days later, Kite entered into a license agreement with the National Institute of Health for the license to its fully human anti-CD19 chimeric antigen... Read More »