Catamaran Sails into OptumRx’s Harbor

by | Apr 4, 2015 3:15 pm | Pharmaceuticals

As the free-standing pharmacy care business of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), OptumRx has serious backing when the right target comes along. Last week, the right one came along in the form of Catamaran Corporation (NASDAQ: CTRX), the nation’s fourth-largest provider of pharmacy benefit management services and healthcare information technology solutions. The offer was $61.50 per share, or approximately $12.8 billion. The deal leaves No. 1 pharmacy benefits provider Express Scripts Holdings (NASDAQ: ESRX) as the last holdout in the field, and some analysts are cheering for a major pharmacy retail chain to make an offer. Don’t look at Rite Aid (NYSE: RAD), though. It just paid $2 billion for... Read More »

March Healthcare M&A Madness

by | Mar 30, 2015 2:37 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

March isn’t quite over as we write this, and neither is the madness—which won’t stop us from posting the biggest deals of the month. As of Friday, March 27, $34.4 billion has been committed to finance about 105 transactions. Of course, $21 billion of that comes from the AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV) acquisition of Pharmacyclics (NASDAQ: PCYC). Next week, preliminary Q1:15 results! Read More »

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 »