Eye Diseases Spur More M&A in July

At least three of the deals announced so far in July have targeted companies or compounds that treat eye diseases. The first was Biogen Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) and its $124 million deal with Applied Genetic Technologies (NASDAQ: AGTC) for the worldwide commercialization rights to one clinical-stage and one pre-clinical therapeutic program. Last week, Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN) paid $125 million for Oculeve, Inc., a medical device company focused on new technologies for dry eye disease. Then, rival Valeant Pharmaceuticals International (NYSE: VRX) paid an undisclosed amount for the global rights to EyeGate Pharmaceuticals’ (OTCQB: EYEG) EyeGate II Delivery System and EGP-437 combination product... Read More »

Second Quarter Health Care M&A Spending Tanks

It’s still early yet, but we can say with confidence that the second quarter of 2015 doesn’t hold a candle to last year’s second quarter, at least dollar-wise. Last year, deal volume and value hit all-time highs for all previous Q2s, coming in at 325 deals and $135.8 billion in spending on those deals. This year, deal volume was fairly steady at 312 (remember, these are preliminary figures for Q2:15) but deal value plummeted 60% to $54.2 billion. We’ll have more details in the July issue of Health Care M&A News, but in the meantime, here are the biggest deals of Q2:15.  Read More »

Top Deals in June 2015 Aren’t So Big

Healthcare M&A in June 2015 hasn’t been dead slow, but it certainly hasn’t kept pace with previous months’ totals. With 83 deals and $14.8 billion in spending, June 2015 lags far behind June 2014’s 120 transactions and $59.2 billion in spending. That said, we’re writing this on the day the U.S. Supreme Court found for the defendant (the Obama administration) in King v. Burwell, which means there could be a few very large deals announced between now and next week—particularly in the managed care sector, where the Big Five health insurers have already made plans to consolidate into the Big Three (see last week’s story in Health Care Deal News). For now, here are the five biggest deals... Read More »

Allergan Adds Kythera to Smooth Its Profile

Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), formerly known as Actavis plc, wasted no time in acquiring another publicly traded company. Last week, Allergan picked up Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: KYTH) for $2.1 billion, payable 80% in cash and 20% in new AGN shares issued to KYTH shareholders. Kythera’s only marketed product is Kybella™, an injectable drug that is the first and only approved, non-surgical treatment for double chin. The acquisition is expected to be breakeven in 2016 and accretive thereafter. Actavis, er, Allergan remains committed to de-levering to below 3.5x debt to Adjusted EBITDA by the end of the first quarter of 2016. Read More »

May 2015 Health Care M&A vs. May 2014

Health care deals were fairly strong in the early weeks of May 2015, but deal makers seemed to take a vacation around the Memorial Day weekend, and didn’t get back to work until the first week in June. Here’s how May 2015 transactions compare with the same month the year before, when M&A was booming through the second quarter. The difference isn’t dramatic, but so far in Q2:15, we’ve counted approximately 228 transactions, compared with 325 in Q2:14. Stay tuned. Read More »

Baxalta’s Predecessor Readies for the Spin Off

Baxter BioScience recently agreed to pay $900 million for the Oncaspar® product portfolio owned the Italian biopharma company, Sigma Tau Financiaria SpA. Oncaspar is a biologic used as part of a multi-agent chemotherapy regimen to treat lymphoblastic leukemia, and is marketed in the United States, Germany, Poland and certain other countries. In addition to the drug, Baxter BioScience also acquired another investigational biologic and an established oncology infrastructure with annual sales of approximately $100 million. Very soon, Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX) plans to spin off Baxter BioScience into a new company called Baxalta Incorporated. This deal is a nice going-away present,... Read More »