June 2016 M&A Results Show Strength
Uncertainty is the hobgoblin of the merger and acquisition markets, and the month of June was a high point (or low point, depending on your perspective) for anxiety in global financial markets. Still, the healthcare deals kept rolling in. Our preliminary total for June 2016 stands at 115 transactions, exactly equal with the same month a year ago. Compared with May’s total of 141 deals, though, June’s total does look as if someone is applying the brakes. It takes 12 months to make a year, though, and one month’s results do not create a trend. The digital health sector turned in the strongest gain compared with June 2015, when only two deals were announced. This June, 22 deals were announced... Read More »Cells Sell…to GE At Least
GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of GE (NYSE:GE), recently announced that it had acquired a privately-held Sweden-based company, Biosafe Group SA, a developer, manufacturer and supplier of products for cell processing in the areas of adult stem cell banking. The combined biological, engineering and industrial capabilities should advance cell therapy and cellular immunotherapy GE’s interest in cellular research is not new. In January 2016, GE Ventures completed a $31.5 million co-investment with the Canadian government to create the BridGE@CCRM Cell Therapy Centre of Excellence in order to promote new technologies for the product of new cellular therapies in Toronto. Then, in April, GE Ventures... Read More »Takeda’s triple transactions
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd. (OTCQB: TKPYY) has been busy bolstering its role as a global leader in gastroenterology. On June 8, 2016, Takeda dished out $15 million for Theravance Biopharma’s (NASDAQ: TBPH) license to TD-8954, a selective 5-HT4 receptor agonist being investigated for potential use in gastrointestinal motility disorders, including enteral feeding intolerance. Less than a month later, Takeda bought the rights to develop ATC-1906 from Altos Therapeutics for an undisclosed amount. ATC-1906 is currently in Phase 1 studies for the treatment of gastroparesis and its symptoms. Then, just four days later, on July 5 2016, Takeda paid approximately $28 million to TiGenix N.V.... Read More »Merck Coughs Up $500 Million for Afferent
Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK) added to its product pipeline with the $500 million acquisition Afferent Pharmaceuticals, a privately held biotechnology company in San Mateo, California. Afferent develops therapeutic candidates targeting the P2X3 receptor, for the treatment of common, poorly-managed neurogenic conditions. Afferent’s lead candidate, AF-219, is a selective, non-narcotic, orally administered P2X3 antagonist. It is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2b clinical trial for the treatment of refractory, chronic cough, as well as in a Phase 2 clinical trial in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with cough. Merck, which is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, paid $500... Read More »Biotechnology Deals in Q1 2016
Biotechnology deal activity picked up in the first quarter of 2016, rising 43% versus the previous quarter, to 30 deals. The total is 24% of the 127 deals announced in the previous 12 months. Biotechnology targets range from large, publicly traded companies to small startups, or established lines of products to licenses or rights to technologies and drugs in various phases of development. Research collaborations are included, when an acquirer pays an upfront fee for the rights to a promising compound, and picks up the R&D, regulatory and commercialization costs. In the first quarter, 19 of the 30 transactions involved the purchase of an entire company, while seven involved the rights... Read More »Schedule a demo
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