Deal of the Week: Melinta/The Medicines Co.’s Antibiotics
As part of a previously announced restructuring plan, The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO) is selling its infectious disease business unit in order to double-down on its promising drug candidate, inclisiran. The drug is currently in Phase 3 development, and completion is expected in the second half of 2019. That’s a long way away, and MDCO needs “sufficient cash and liquidity” to reach the goal line. That’s why, on November 29, the company announced an agreement to sell its infectious disease business unit, including three marketed antibiotics, Vabomere, Orbactiv® and Minocin IV. Melinta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: MLNT), the buyer, will pay $540 million, as well as... Read More »
Stat of the Week: 0% Growth in Q3 Pharma Deals
“Sluggish” is the best word to describe deal activity in the Pharmaceutical sector this year. Mergers and acquisitions have dropped every quarter since the third quarter of 2016. In Q3:17, this dearth of deals may have finally bottomed out. Deal making stayed even with the previous quarter, but that total represented the nadir for deal volume in the previous 12 months. At 16 deals, Q3:17 transactions made up 17% of the 94 deals announced in the past 12 months. The total is 59% lower than in the same quarter in 2016. As we noted in last quarter’s edition, the global pharmaceutical companies are waiting to see the outcome of President Trump’s tax reform efforts. They are in no... Read More »
Deal of the Week: McKesson/RxCrossroads
The largest deal announced in a very sluggish week for healthcare announcements was McKesson Corp.’s (NYSE: MCK) $735 million acquisition of RxCrossroads from CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS). RxCrossroads provides a range of specialty distribution, pharmacy and patient support to biopharmaceutical manufacturers. CVS acquired it in 2015 as part of its $12.7 billion deal for Omnicare Inc., which specialized in managing pharmaceutical care in long-term care and assisted living facilities. Omnicare paid $235 million for RxCrossroads in 2005, when it reported annualized revenue of $46 million. For McKesson, RxCrossroads will help it to capitalize on what the coming boom in the specialty... Read More »
Amgen Teams with CytomX
Oncology is driving some big deals, no question about it. More than 350 deals have had targets involved in some form of oncology program or drug since 2012. In the first week of October alone, we saw three deals targeting some form of oncology treatment. The one with the largest potential pay-off was announced between Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ: AMGN) and CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTMX). The deal has potential value of more than $1.5 billion. In this strategic collaboration, the companies will co-develop a CytomX Probody™ T-cell engaging bispecific against the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), a highly validated oncology target expressed on multiple human cancer types. Probody... Read More »
Deal(s) of the Week: Teva, Take Two
Debt has been a key deal driver this year, particularly in the hospital sector, where Community Health Systems (NYSE: CYH), Quorum Health Corporation (NYSE: QHC) and Tenet Healthcare (NYSE: THC) are shedding less desirable assets. Joining them now is generic drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NYSE: TEVA), which is shouldering $35 billion of debt brought on by its $40.5 billion acquisition of Allergan’s (NYSE: AGN) line of generics, announced in July 2015. The company hasn’t announced an acquisition since September 2016. What a difference a year makes, as generic drug prices have been squeezed and the company has been selling off non-core assets to pay down its... Read More »Schedule a demo
Gain access to the best healthcare and long-term care investment intelligence, data, and analysis.
