Q1:17 Biotechnology Deals Keep Climbing
Biotechnology deal activity has climbed steadily over the past five quarters. The sector reached 62 transactions in Q1:17, an increase of 13% over the previous quarter and up 94% year-over-year. The total is 31% of the 203 deals announced in the previous 12 months. M&A in this sector will remain active for years to come, as pharmaceutical companies that have abandoned their own R&D turn to buying up smaller biotechs with promising clinical-stage compounds. The 21st Century Cures Act also benefits this sector, with its billions of dollars in financing for both the “Cancer Moonshot” and the BRAIN Initiative. In the first quarter, 20 of the 62 transactions involved the purchase of an... Read More »Where Have All the Big Pharma Deals Gone?
The Pharmaceutical sector has experienced a dearth of big deals so far this year. In Q1:16, 40 transactions with pharmaceutical targets were announced, for a total of $46.2 billion. In the first quarter of 2017 (through March 28), only 24 deals (-40%) for pharmaceutical targets have been announced, with a combined total of $10.1 billion (-78%). One factor behind the drop in deals is obvious. The sector came under legislative and consumer scrutiny during the presidential election in 2016, as candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump each decried high prices charged by drug manufacturers, and each vowed to do something about it once elected. President Trump repeated his campaign promise to... Read More »Cerulean Pharma Shifts its Focus to Women’s Health
Cerulean Pharma Inc. (NASDAQ:CERU), a clinical-stage company that develops nanoparticle-drug conjugates (NDCs), sold off its lead assets and is transitioning its focus from oncology to women’s health. The company announced on February 1, 2017 that it had hired investment bank Aquilo Partners, L.P., as its financial advisor to assist in a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives to maximize stockholder value. Then, on March 20, 2017, it announced that it had entered a stock purchase agreement with privately-held Daré Bioscience, in which Daré will own between 51% and 70% of the combined company. Daré Bioscience is a California-based, clinical-stage pharmaceutical company that develops... Read More »Perrigo Lets Go of Tysabri Royalties
What goes around comes around. It doesn’t seem that long ago that the Dublin-based drug firm Elan Corporation plc was fighting off the hostile advances of Royalty Pharma. It was July 2013, in fact, when Elan agreed to be acquired by Perrigo (NYSE: PRGO) for $8.6 billion. To refresh the memory, Elan was a biotech company whose portfolio included royalties from Tysabri®, a multiple sclerosis treatment, and a neuropsychiatric pipeline with near-term value creation potential. Early February 2013, Elan sold half of its rights to Tysabri to Biogen Idec, now known as Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB), for $3.25 billion. At the time, the terms called for $3.25 billion upfront cash plus 12% of... Read More »January Deal Volume Beats December 2016 and January 2016
The year got off to a good start, as far as mergers and acquisitions are concerned. Deal volume reached 156 transactions in January, up 19% compared with December 2016, and up 50% over January 2016. It’s easy to point to the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, held in January, as the cause of the sudden boost, particularly in the Biotechnology and eHealth sectors. But the conference didn’t have the same effect last January, when just 104 deals were reported, and those two sectors didn’t see comparable deal volume. If anything, deal volume might have been expected to decline, considering all the “repeal and replace” talk from the incoming Republican administration. That obviously... Read More »Schedule a demo
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