Biotechnology Deal Volume Slides 22% in Q3
Biotechnology deal activity slid further in the third quarter, down 22% to 42 transactions, compared with the second quarter’s 54 transactions. The total represents 19% of the 217 deals announced in the previous 12 months. Deal making may have slowed in the face of growing complaints from President Trump about the high cost of drugs, and Congressional hearings were set to begin in mid-October. While M&A in the Pharmaceutical sector has been hit harder, most companies are dependent on biotechnology companies to innovate novel therapies in various areas. In the third quarter, nine of the 42 transactions involved the purchase of an entire company, and 33 involved the rights or license to... Read More »
Top 10 Transactions in Q3:17
Ten of the largest deals announced in the third quarter broke the $1.0 billion mark, for a total of $29.9 billion (70% of the quarter’s total spending of $42.7 billion). The largest transaction, Gilead Sciences’ $11.9 billion acquisition of biotech firm Kite Pharma, made up 28% of the quarter’s combined total spending. KKR & Co. made three of these billion-dollar acquisitions, either directly or through portfolio companies, for a total of nearly $7.3 billion. All three targets were publicly traded companies in very discrete fields: internet healthcare source WebMD, air ambulance company American Medical Response, and the... Read More »
August Marks the Return of the Big Deals
The dog days of summer weren’t really all that hot, here in the Northeast. Neither was August’s deal volume. Although it’s preliminary data, the 102 deals posted in August equalled the total in July. Compared with the same month in 2016, that represents a 22% slide in deal volume. But don’t fret, deal-meisters. We saw several billion-dollar deals last month, which lifted August 2017’s spending to $22.3 billion. That’s 156% higher than the previous month, and just 1% below the $22.6 billion recorded a year ago. Once again, the Biotechnology sector was the big money-maker. Deal volume was up 30%, year over year, to a modest 13 deals. The largest deal announced in August was Gilead Sciences’... Read More »
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 »Schedule a demo
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