NASH-Driven Deals Pile Up
On November 10, 2016, Bristol-Meyers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) purchased the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize Nitto Denko Corporation’s (TYO: 6988) investigational siRNA, which includes Nitto’s lead asset ND-L02-s0201. Nitto’s lead asset ND-L02-s0201 is currently in a five-week open-label Phase 1b study in patients with advanced fibrosis (F3-F4c) due to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or hepatitis C. Nitto Denko received a $100 million upfront payment as part of the license agreement, and it is not the first company to cash in on its product candidates for the possible treatment of NASH. NASH is characterized by fatty infiltration of the liver not caused by alcohol,... Read More »October M and A Settles into Second Place
What’s a synonym for “slowdown?” We’re as tired of writing about monthly deal volume dropping off as you probably are of reading about it. But M&A activity in October 2016 can only be summed up as slackening, declining, decelerating. Preliminary deal volume is now at the second-lowest level of the year, just 112 transactions. Only January’s deal volume was lower, at 104 transactions. We may have a few additions to October’s total as the fourth quarter grinds on, but it’s not typical to find another 15 deals. Deal value also dropped off. At $12.8 billion, it ranks as the second-lowest level of spending for the year. July 2016 still holds the honor of being the slowest month for... Read More »Medivir Sheds its Established Pharma Company for Clinical Stage Programs
Medivir AB (NASDAQ: MVIR), a research-based pharmaceutical company focused on oncology and infectious diseases, announced two transactions in the first days of November that constitutes a major shake-up. On November 1, 2016, Medivir sold its pharmaceutical subsidiary, BioPhausia AB, to Karo Pharma AB (STO: KARO), a Swedish drug developer. BioPhausia develops and sells prescription medicines in the Nordic region for various therapeutic areas. The price was $101.75 million (SEK 908 million). BioPhausia has 13 established pharmaceutical drugs with strong brand names, which generated revenues of $21.1 million (SEK 189 million) from Q3:15 through Q2:16. According to Medivir CEO’s... Read More »Q3:16 Health Care M&A Results: Context Is Everything
Brace yourself. The third quarter results for health care mergers and acquisitions signal a hard tap on the brakes, both in deal volume and value. That’s compared with the robust second quarter, and the same quarter a year ago. Before we go any further, though, we must note that, compared with all previous third quarters stretching back to 2000, the third quarter of 2016 doesn’t look that bad. Some 369 transactions are now on the books for Q3:16, which ranks this quarter as the second-highest in deal volume for any previous third quarter. The top-ranked third quarter, coincidently, came a year ago, when Q3:15 racked up 411 transactions. So Q3:16’s deal volume slid 10% compared with the... Read More »AstraZeneca Sheds Assets After its Trial Failure
AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) has been on the receiving end of three different purchases in the first five days of October, selling licenses to three of its non-core assets for a combined upfront payment of $450 million. Its selling spree occurred in tandem with the announced trial failure of its blood thinner Brilinta (ticagrelor), which failed to show any benefit over the standard medication for the treatment of peripheral artery disease (PAD). According to Reuters, the trial failure forced the company to abandon a $3.5 billion-a-year sales target for the drug by 2023. On October 3rd, AstraZeneca’s biologics arm, MedImmune, agreed to license the worldwide rights to Allergan plc (NYSE:... Read More »Schedule a demo
Gain access to the best healthcare and long-term care investment intelligence, data, and analysis.
