Biotech Boomed Even Before Trump’s Election
Now that Donald Trump has transitioned from presidential candidate to president-elect, his pro-business views have cheered many deal makers. His “repeal and replace” pronouncements regarding the Affordable Care Act have chilled some areas of the healthcare market, but others are thriving. Biotechnology is one sector that was already experiencing a boom in mergers and acquisitions, prior to November 8. Third-quarter deal volume surged 58%, to 52 transactions. Sixteen deals were recorded in October 2016, and in the first two weeks of November, 12 are already in our database. Ten of those are license agreements, as pharmaceutical companies swoop in to claim promising product... Read More »NASH-Driven Deals Pile Up
On November 10, 2016, Bristol-Meyers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) purchased the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Nitto Denko Corporation’s (TYO: 6988) investigational siRNA, which includes Nitto’s lead asset ND-L02-s0201. Nitto’s lead asset ND-L02-s0201 is currently in a five-week open-label Phase 1b study in patients with advanced fibrosis (F3-F4c) due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or hepatitis C. Nitto Denko received a $100 million upfront payment as part of the license agreement, and it is not the first company to cash in on its product candidates for the possible treatment of NASH. NASH is characterized by fatty infiltration of the liver not caused by alcohol,... Read More »October M and A Settles into Second Place
What’s a synonym for “slowdown?” We’re as tired of writing about monthly deal volume dropping off as you probably are of reading about it. But M&A activity in October 2016 can only be summed up as slackening, declining, decelerating. Preliminary deal volume is now at the second-lowest level of the year, just 112 transactions. Only January’s deal volume was lower, at 104 transactions. We may have a few additions to October’s total as the fourth quarter grinds on, but it’s not typical to find another 15 deals. Deal value also dropped off. At $12.8 billion, it ranks as the second-lowest level of spending for the year. July 2016 still holds the honor of being the slowest month for... Read More »Medivir Sheds its Established Pharma Company for Clinical Stage Programs
Medivir AB (NASDAQ: MVIR), a research-based pharmaceutical company focused on oncology and infectious diseases, announced two transactions in the first days of November that constitutes a major shake-up. On November 1, 2016, Medivir sold its pharmaceutical subsidiary, BioPhausia AB, to Karo Pharma AB (STO: KARO), a Swedish drug developer. BioPhausia develops and sells prescription medicines in the Nordic region for various therapeutic areas. The price was $101.75 million (SEK 908 million). BioPhausia has 13 established pharmaceutical drugs with strong brand names, which generated revenues of $21.1 million (SEK 189 million) from Q3:15 through Q2:16. According to Medivir CEO’s... Read More »Biotech Deal Volume Increases 58% in Q3:16
Overall, mergers and acquisitions slowed in Q3:16, down 11% compared with Q2:16, and 10% lower than in Q3:15. The biotechnology sector saw just the opposite phenomenon. Biotech transactions grew by 58%, to 52 deals, compared with the previous quarter’s 33 deals, and by 24% compared with the same quarter in 2015, when 42 deals were announced. Not all deals in this sector involve the purchase of an entire company, however. Just 42% of the third-quarter transactions fit that description. The remaining 58% deals involved the purchase of exclusive rights and licenses to products, product candidates or intellectual property from a biotech firm. Pharmaceutical companies have pulled back (or... Read More »Schedule a demo
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