Gilead Buys Kite Pharma to Diversify Portfolio
Gilead Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: GILD) finally found a target worth pursuing. The pharmaceutical company, perhaps best known for its high-priced hepatitis-C drugs, Harvoni and Solvadi, placed its bets on Kite Pharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: KITE), hoping to cash in on the biotech’s promising technology for fighting cancer. Gilead announced the acquisition of Kite Pharma for $180.00 per share, valuing the company at approximately $11.9 billion. The price represents a 29% premium to Kite’s closing price on August 25, 2017. Kite Pharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops and commercializes novel cancer immunotherapy products. It is developing a pipeline of engineered... Read More »PE Firms Line Up for Pharmaceutical Targets
Although pharmaceutical M&A has declined sharply over the past year, there has been an uptick in financial buyer activity in the sector in the first eight months of 2017. We don’t typically see a lot of financial buyers in this space, since they are easily outbid by strategic buyers that have the advantage of easy access to capital and cost synergies. Also, private equity buyers have been flocking to acquire “healthcare-lite” targets, such as eHealth or contract research organizations, in the past 12 months, largely to avoid potential regulatory and reimbursement roadblocks that come with a new administration. Pharmaceutical M&A is down 65% (only 55 deals) compared with the 156... Read More »Pharmaceutical M&A Shows No Sign of Rebounding
Acquisition data from Q2:17 shows pharmaceutical deal volume continues its steep downward decline. (See chart) Pharmaceutical deal making slid even further in the second quarter, down 45% to 16 deals, compared with the previous quarter, and down 64% compared with the same quarter a year earlier. This quarter’s deal volume accounts for 14% of the 116 deals announced in the previous 12 months. This sector enjoyed an M&A heyday in 2014 (188 deals) and 2015 (171). Pharma deals began to dry up in 2016 (156) and are lagging even that slower pace through the first half of 2017 (50 deals). One major reason for the dearth in deal volume this year is that the Big Pharma companies (like all the... Read More »Sanofi Rationalizes Its Vaccine Portfolio
Early in July, Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) announced an acquisition and a divestment, both affecting its vaccine business. In a recent annual filing, Sanofi labelled its vaccine unit as an area of priority to sustain its leadership role. To that end, the company has expanded its influenza vaccine portfolio and shed its small pox vaccine business, including its related contract with the Center for Disease Control (CDC). In 2016, Sanofi generated $5.04 billion in net sales from its vaccine products. Its influenza vaccine unit was the second largest contributor to this total, accounting for $1.7 billion in net sales that year, a record year for Sanofi’s influenza campaign. Sanofi Pasteur, the... Read More »Health Care Deal Volume Slows in Q2:2017, As Dollar Volume Rises
Health care merger and acquisition activity slowed in the second quarter of 2017. Compared with the first quarter of 2017, deal volume decreased 15%, to 366 transactions. Deal volume was also lower compared with the same quarter the year before, down 14%. Combined spending in the second quarter reached $95.8 billion, an increase of 62% compared with the $59.1 billion spent in the previous quarter, according to HealthCareMandA.com. Second quarter deal value was up 8% compared with the $88.7 billion spent in Q2:16. Health care services transactions accounted for 52% of the second quarter’s dollar volume, much higher than the 14% share reported in the first quarter, and the 19% share recorded... Read More »Schedule a demo
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