Fred’s Inc. Buys EntrustRx

by | Mar 30, 2015 2:29 pm | Pharmaceuticals

Specialty pharmaceutical companies are still in strong demand, and so are specialty pharmacies. Three deals in the first quarter of 2015 have been announced, the most recent being last week’s $66 million acquisition of Reeves-Sain Drug Store, Inc., a private specialty and retail pharmacy company, by Fred’s Inc. (NASDAQ: FRED). Fred’s sells general merchandise through 661 retail discount stores and full-service pharmacies in the southeastern United States. This transaction nets it a single Reeves-Sain retail pharmacy in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Columbus, Mississippi. Read More »

Another PBM Changes Hands

by | Mar 23, 2015 8:41 pm | Pharmaceuticals

Early this month we wrote about the pick-up in M&A activity around pharmacy benefits management (PBM) companies, particularly as private equity firms made exits. Last week, another PBM made M&A news, as Magellan Health (NASDAQ: MGLN) paid $55 million to acquire 4D Pharmacy Management Systems in Troy, Michigan. 4D Pharmacy has strong presence in the growing markets of Medicare, dual eligible and healthcare exchanges. Plus, Magellan expects 4D to produce approximately $400 million in revenue in 2015, pre- and post-acquisition. Read More »

Janssen Scoops Up XO1

by | Mar 23, 2015 8:31 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

No, XO1 is not a drug candidate, it’s the name of an asset-centric virtual biopharmaceutical company, XO1 Limited, a UK-based portfolio company of Index Ventures. Janssen Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: JNJ) paid an undisclosed price for the virtual company, which was founded solely to develop the anti-thrombin antibody ichorcumab, which basically acts as an anticoagulant but doesn’t cause bleeding, like previous blood thinners. XO1 and Index Ventures licensed the technology from Cambridge University Hospitals, where it was developed. Read More »

Endo Tries to Upstage Valeant’s Bid for Salix

by | Mar 16, 2015 8:21 pm | Pharmaceuticals

It’s not over until the fat check arrives. That’s the story of Salix Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SLXP), which last month accepted Valeant Pharmaceuticals’ (NYSE: VRX) $10.1 billion acquisition offer. Valeant thought it had snatched victory from Shire plc (NASDAQ: SHPG) and Endo International plc (NASDAQ: ENDP), which were also readying bids for the troubled Salix. Endo apparently wasn’t daunted, and last week came back with a cash and stock bid of approximately $11.1 billion. Stay tuned. Read More »

Year’s Biggest Billion-Dollar Deals Top $64 Billion

by | Mar 16, 2015 8:16 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

Already in 2015, we’ve recorded 11 billion-dollar-plus deals, for a total of $64.4 billion. Thanks to the $21 billion AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) bid for Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ: PCYC), the biotechnology sector accounted for $27.5 billion of those big deals. Pharmaceuticals, with four billion-plus transactions, still ranks first, with combined spending of $30.45 billion.  Read More »

AbbVie Wins Pharmacyclics

by | Mar 9, 2015 7:33 pm | Pharmaceuticals

Everybody hates a winner, it seems. Last week’s announcement that AbbVie Inc. (NYSE: ABBV) won the bidding war for Pharmacyclics Inc. (NASDAQ: PCYC) had many analysts shaking their heads in disbelief. The consternation was over the price, which at $261.25 per share for PCYC came to approximately $21 billion, about 27.8x revenue and 165.6x EBITDA. The real prize for AbbVie is Imbruvica, an effective treatment against a form of leukemia and other diseases that Pharmacyclics is marketing under an agreement with Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ). J&J and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) were also in the final round of bidders. AbbVie’s shares fell nearly 6% on March 5, the day after the announcement,... Read More »