Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio

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 »

Invitae Adds Reproductive Health Diagnostics

Just a month ago, we reported on molecular-diagnostics firm Invitae (NYSE: NVTA), and its interest in the eHealth sector, following the acquisition of two digital health companies. In July, the company set its sights on other laboratory companies and announced two more acquisitions. Invitae also separately announced that it will sell $73.5 million of its stock through a private placement to be led by existing investors with “significant” participation from multiple new investors, all unnamed. Invitae is one of the fastest growing genetic information companies in the United States, whose longer-term strategy is to aggregate most of the world’s genetic tests into a single service with... Read More »

Health Care Deal Volume Slows in Q2:2017, As Dollar Volume Rises

Health care merger and acquisition activity slowed in the second quarter of 2017. Compared with the first quarter of 2017, deal volume decreased 15%, to 366 transactions. Deal volume was also lower compared with the same quarter the year before, down 14%. Combined spending in the second quarter reached $95.8 billion, an increase of 62% compared with the $59.1 billion spent in the previous quarter, according to HealthCareMandA.com. Second quarter deal value was up 8% compared with the $88.7 billion spent in Q2:16. Health care services transactions accounted for 52% of the second quarter’s dollar volume, much higher than the 14% share reported in the first quarter, and the 19% share recorded... Read More »
June 2017 Deal Volume Shows Continued Strength

June 2017 Deal Volume Shows Continued Strength

Preliminary data for the month of June shows that investors are still bullish—or at least comfortable—betting on health care. Some 123 transactions were announced last month, an 11% decrease compared with May’s 138 transactions. Year over year, however, this early data is just 5% below the 130 deals announced in June 2016. For a little perspective, April 2017’s deal volume was just 104 transactions, which made the May numbers look very strong by comparison. June’s deal volume looks reassuringly healthy, as it is close to the year-ago total, and could be adjusted upward in the future as more deals come to light. The same trends we’ve noted in previous months are still playing out, too. Deal... Read More »

Konica Minolta Moves into Precision Medicine

Science is turning away from standardized treatment now that there is an understanding of how an individual’s genetic make up affects its response to different treatment. It is no surprise then, that drug development companies are looking to become top dogs in precision medicine. (“Precision medicine” is defined by the National Institutes of Health as medical care designed to optimize efficiency or therapeutic benefit for particular groups of patients, especially by using genetic or molecular profiling.) Success in precision medicine is dependent upon biomarkers that lend insight into a therapy’s efficacy. One simply cannot exist without the other, and for this reason,... Read More »

Bioverativ Starts Making Deals

In February, Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) completed the previously announced spin-off of its global hemophilia business. The new company, known as Bioverativ (NASDAQ: BIVV), is an independent, publicly traded global biotechnology company focused on hemophilia and other rare blood disorders. Bioverativ went on to announce the largest biotech deal of May 2017. On May 22, it acquired privately held True North Therapeutics for an upfront payment of $400 million plus assumed cash. True North investors are eligible to receive additional payments of up to $425 million contingent on the achievement of future development, regulatory and sales milestones of its lead product. Based in... Read More »