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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 »

JNJ Bolsters Its Pipeline with Actelion Acquisition

It took a while, but Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) finally bagged Swiss-based Actelion Ltd. (SIX: ATLN), Europe’s biggest biotech company. The company had been in play since August 2016, when J&J began negotiations, but eventually bowed out after offering $260 per share, or $28 billion. Sanofi S.A. (NYSE: SNY) moved in and by mid-December, Bloomberg reported, the two parties were discussing a price of $275 per share, valuing Actelion at $29.6 billion. For both suitors, a deal with Actelion would boost their aging pipelines. Actelion, which was formed in 1997 as a spin-out from Roche (SIX: RO), had developed a strong portfolio of drugs for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a... Read More »
Werfen Life Divests to Focus on the Hemostasis Market

Werfen Life Divests to Focus on the Hemostasis Market

The growing prevalence of autoimmune and blood disorders has put a spotlight on the science of hemostasis, the process of stopping bleeding and keeping blood within the damaged blood vessel. The coagulation/hemostasis analyzer market is expected to reach $4.84 billion by 2021, according to a report from MarketsandMarkets. Among the products, clinical laboratory analyzers are expected to account for the largest share of the market. Some big name players are already strengthening their hemostasis portfolios. In December 2015, Mallinckrodt plc (NYSE: MNK) purchased a global portfolio of three hemostasis products from The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO) for an upfront payment of $175... Read More »

December 2016 Didn’t Deliver a Year-End Boost

The final month of the fourth quarter is typically a busy one for deal makers in all industries. Last year, some health care deal makers apparently got a rest. Deal volume in December 2016 was an anemic 119 transactions, compared with 131 deals in November and 148 in December 2015. The Services sectors accounted for 55% of the deals in December, which is on the low side. Consider that, in November, Services accounted for 69% of the month’s transactions, and even 70% of the total in December 2015. Spending on those deals reached $15.4 billion, a relatively modest amount until it is compared with November’s $8.7 billion total (+78%) and December 2015’s $12.3 billion total (+26%). Suddenly,... Read More »