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Seeking Cash and More Cash

Seeking Cash and More Cash

by | Aug 10, 2018 3:11 pm | Biotechnology

After finishing up its strategic alternatives review, OvaScience, which is focused on developing treatments for infertility, decided the best way to go for shareholders was to merge into Millendo Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel treatments for orphan endocrine diseases. OvaScience’s market cap was just $26 million, and it really hadn’t had any revenues yet. What it did have was cash, a total of $53.6 million of it (combined with short-term investments) as of June 30, 2018. Management at OvaScience must have thought that Millendo would have better use of that cash than for its own research. In merging with OvaScience, not only does... Read More »
Biogen’s $1 Billion Collaboration

Biogen’s $1 Billion Collaboration

by | Jul 31, 2018 1:42 pm | Biotechnology

The biggest biotechnology deal announced in July came from Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), which specializes in treatments for neurological, autoimmune and hematologic disorders. The company inked an exclusive, 10-year collaboration agreement with Ionis Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IONS) to develop novel antisense drug candidates for a broad range of neurological diseases. The price is a combination of $375 million upfront and $625 million to acquire approximately 11.5 million shares of Ionis’ common stock. Biogen may eventually pay development milestones of up to $125 million, or $270 million for each program, depending on the indication, and royalties on net sales. Biogen will have the... Read More »
Otsuka Scores Twice in One Week

Otsuka Scores Twice in One Week

by | Jul 11, 2018 12:14 pm | Biotechnology, Medical Devices, Private Equity

Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings (OTC: OTSKY), announced back-to-back deals in early July, in which it entered a new field, and bolstered one of its existing segments. Otsuka’s research areas are in psychiatric and neurological diseases, hematological cancers, and kidney, cardiovascular, and infectious diseases. On July 11, the company announced its acquisition of ReCor Medical, a portfolio company of Sofinnova Partners, for an undisclosed price. The Palo Alto, California-based medical device company specializes in the treatment of hypertension, a new area for Otsuka. ReCor was founded in 2009 by Sofinnova Partners and Professor Jacques Seguin, MD, who... Read More »
Roche Builds on its Foundation Medicine Deal

Roche Builds on its Foundation Medicine Deal

by | Jun 20, 2018 2:06 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

Three years after its first investment, Roche AG (SIX: RO) bought the rest of Foundation Medicine, Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based molecular information company. In January 2015, Roche plunked down $1.03 billion to acquire approximately 57% of Foundation Medicine from its venture capital backers Google Ventures, Third Rock Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers. Roche acquired approximately 15.6 million shares in Foundation at $50 per share. It also invested $250 million by acquiring 5 million newly issued shares at $50 per share. My, how times (and markets) have changed. On June 19, Roche announced it would pay $2.4 billion to buy the shares it didn’t own. The... Read More »
Eli Lilly Doubles Down on Immuno-Oncology

Eli Lilly Doubles Down on Immuno-Oncology

by | May 11, 2018 9:42 am | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

ARMO BioSciences (NASDAQ: ARMO) is a late-stage immuno-oncology company that develops a pipeline of novel, proprietary product candidates designed to activate the immune system of cancer patients to recognize and eradicate tumors. On a trailing 12-month basis, it generated a net loss of $42.4 million. Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) overlooked the loss as it eyed the real prize–the addition of pegilodecakin, a PEGylated IL-10, which has demonstrated clinical benefits as a single agent, and in combination with both chemotherapy and checkpoint inhibitor therapy, across several tumor types. Pegilodecakin is currently being studied in a Phase 3 clinical trial in pancreatic cancer, and... Read More »

Takeda Takes on Shire for $81.5 Billion

by | May 10, 2018 12:13 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

Big Pharma deals are back, more than ever. After six weeks of offers, refusals, talks and more, Japanese drug giant Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (OTCQB: TKPYY) reached an agreement to acquire Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPG) for $81.5 billion, including assumed debt of $19.54 billion. It’s the largest healthcare deal announced ever, unless you count Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) hostile stalking of AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) through much of 2014, with bids reported to be around $118 billion. And we don’t. Looking back over past pharmaceutical deals (that closed), this takes the record from Pfizer, which announced its acquisition of Wyeth, Inc. for approximately $78.5 billion, including $10.5 billion... Read More »