The highest value deals in March were again dominated by company acquisitions but only one mega merger, Abbvie’s acquisition of Pharmacyclics.
The price of $21bn was regarded by many commentators as very high and there were accusations that Abbvie had overpaid – but the reason for this was not the share price premium. [Read the month’s pharma deal commentary in full.]
Here Medius present a run down of the month’s biggest mergers, acquisitions and collaborations from across the sector.
| Licensor/Licensee Acquired / Acquirer | Deal type* | Product/Technology | Headline $m |
| Pharmacyclics / Abbvie | Company acquisition | Marketed BTK inhibitor for haematological cancers + pipeline incl. 3 products in clinic | 21,000 |
| Auspex / Teva | Company acquisition | Phase 3 product for Huntington’s Chorea + deuterium technology platform | 3,500 |
| Ikaria / Mallinckrodt | Company acquisition | Marketed critical care treatments incl. respiratory for neonatals | 2,300 |
| Cordis (J&J) / Cardinal Health | Company acquisition | J&J divest subsidiary marketing vascular devices | 1,944 |
| Covis / Concordia | Asset acquisition | 18 marketed brands and generics in US acquired by Canadian company | 1,200 |
| Hyperion / Horizon | Company acquisition | 2 marketed urea cycle disorder orphan drugs in the US | 1,100 |
| Bavarian Nordic / BMS | Option to license and commercialise | Phase 3 immuno-oncology treatment for prostate cancer | 975 |
| Intrexon / Merck Serono | Licence and collaboration + option | CAR-T immuno-oncology platform for identifying and developing target molecules | 941 |
| AstraZeneca / Daiichi Sankyo | Co-commercialisation US | Marketed Movantik (naloxegol) for opioid induced constipation | 825 |
| Aduro / Novartis | Licence and collaboration | Preclinical cancer immunotherapies targeting the STING (Stimulator of Interferon Genes) pathway | 750 |
| Hanmi / Eli Lilly | Licence and collaboration** | Phase 1 BTK inhibitor for treatment of lupus | 690 |
| Innovent / Eli Lilly | Strategic alliance | Development and commercialisation with Chinese company 3 preclinical oncology drugs† | 456+ |
| Zogenix / Pernix | Acquisition product | US marketed hydrocodone (Zohydro ER) for treatment of pain | 384 |
| Cellular Dynamics / Fujiflim | Company acquisition | US-based developer and manufacturer of human cells | 307 |
| Blueprint / Alexion | Strategic collaboration China and rest of world | Kinase inhibitor platform for discovery of molecules for treatment of rare diseases | 265 |
| Immunogen / Takeda | Licence and collaboration + option | Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology to develop 2 anticancer products + option on 3rd | 230 |
| SuppreMol / Baxter | Company acquisition | Biologic immuno-regulatory pipeline with phase 2 lead product for treatment of ITP and lupus | 225 |
| Athersys / Chugai | Licence and collaboration Japan | Phase 2 stem cell therapy for treatment of ischaemic stroke | 205 |
| Alkermes / Recro | Asset acquisition | Purchase of US factory and associated products and pipeline | 170 |
| Checkpoint Therapeutics / TG | Licence and collaboration | Human anti-PD-L1 and anti-GITR antibody preclinical programmes for haematological cancers | 165 |
| Brighthaven Ventures/ Islet Sciences | Licence and collaboration*** | Phase 2b SGLT2 inhibitor remogliflozin for treatment of diabetes | 117 |
| Sorrento / Nantcell | Licence and collaboration | Discovery and development of anticancer products incl. CAR-T and checkpoint inhibitors PD-1 and PD-L1 | 110 |
| Transtech / Calithera | Licence and collaboration | Portfolio of hexokinase II inhibitors for treatment of cancer | 109 |
| Astellas / Vical | Licence and collaboration | Preclinical antifungal ASP2397 | 100 |
* Licence and collaboration means exclusive global rights to develop and commercialise unless otherwise stated
** Global rights excluding China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea
*** Global rights excluding Latin America, China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan
† Innovent to receive a total upfront payment of $56m and potential milestones of over $400m for one of the molecules, a preclinical immuno-oncology molecule.
