Big Pharma Pays Big for Biotech Pipelines

by | Sep 1, 2016 6:43 pm | Biotechnology, Pharmaceuticals

The pharmaceutical industry has largely given up on in-house research and development, saying that the R&D timeline is too costly, long and uncertain to fund with shareholders’ money. The industry has gone from bolt-on acquisitions of smaller companies with marketed products to battling it out for clinical-stage drug candidates. What’s surprised some industry observers is that these acquirers are now targeting early-stage and even pre-clinical drug candidates, to boost their own production pipelines, but as a way to stymie the competition, too. Pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions hit a peak in 2014, with 188 deals (up 25% year-over-year) and $213.3 billion in spending (up 220%... Read More »

Pfizer Buys Medivation and More

by | Aug 24, 2016 8:15 am | Pharmaceuticals

Forget those early- to mid-stage clinical candidates. Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) jumped the line with its $13.5 billion deal for oncology drug maker Medivation Inc. (NASDAQ: MDVN). The target’s primary product is XTANDI® (enzalutamide), an androgen receptor inhibitor, the leading novel hormone therapy for the treatment of prostate cancer. Pfizer will pay $81.50 per share in existing cash, a 21% premium to Medivation’s closing stock price on Friday, August 19, 2016. This deal ends months of bidding for Medivation, which began in April with Sanofi SA’s $52.50 per share (about $9 billion) offer. Medivation turned down the overture, and Sanofi eventually raised its bid to $58.50... Read More »

Pfizer: We’re So Over Allergan

by | May 19, 2016 8:00 am | Pharmaceuticals

Within hours after Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN) called off their $160 billion merger on April 26, 2016, Allergan announced a new acquisition. It’s taken a few weeks, but Pfizer is finally moving on. Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ANAC) is the target, based in Palo Alto, California. Anacor Pharmaceuticals focuses on discovering, developing and commercializing novel small-molecule therapeutics derived from its boron chemistry platform. Its flagship asset is crisaborole, a differentiated non-steroidal toipcal PDE4 inhibitor with anti-inflammatory properties. Its currently under review by the FDA for the treatment of mild-to-moderate atopic dermatitis, also... Read More »