Whilst not quite matching January’s mega-deal tally February brought home a very respectable score of three deals with values in excess of $1bn. Within the top 20 deals by value for the month the prevailing mood was buy, buy, buy be it wholesale acquisition of companies (6), business units (2) or single assets (2). [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 Acquired / Licensee Acquirer | Product / Technology | Deal Type | Headline $m |
| Hospira/ Pfizer | Injectable biosimilar drugs and infusion technologies | Corporate acquisition | 17,000 |
| Salix Pharmaceuticals/ Valeant Pharmaceuticals | GI products | Corporate acquisition | 14,500 |
| Flexus Biosciences/ BMS | F001287, IDO1 inhibitor + IDO/TDO discovery programme – immuno-oncology | Corporate acquisition | 1,250 |
| Voyager Therapeutics/ Sanofi (Genzyme) | Gene therapy – Parkinson’s disease, Friedreich’s ataxia and Huntington’s disease | Collaboration – discover, develop, commercialise | 845 |
| Famy Care/ Mylan | Female healthcare businesse | Acquisition – business units | 800 |
| *Actavis/ AstraZeneca | Respiratory medicines | Acquisition – business unit | 700 |
| NGM Biopharmaceuticals/ Merck & Co | NP201 + other preclinical candidates – diabetes, obesity, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) | Collaboration – discover, develop, commercialise | 450 |
| Heptares Therapeutics/ Sosei Group | Novel G protein-coupled receptor targeted drug candidates – Alzheimer’s disease, metabolic disease, schizophrenia, migraine etc | Corporate acquisition | 400 |
| Dendreon/ Valeant Pharmaceuticals | PROVENGE® (sipuleucel-T) and other assets – prostate cancer | Corporate acquisition | 400 |
| Shanxi Powerdone/ Harbin Gloria Pharma | Chemical drug and compound preparation manufacturing | Majority acquisition | 380 |
| Pfenex/ Hospira | PF582 – LUCENTIS® biosimilar candidate – wet age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular oedema | Collaboration – develop and commercialise | 342 |
| Rigel Pharmaceuticals/ BMS | Small molecule TGF beta receptor kinase inhibitors – immuno-oncology | Collaboration – discover, develop, commercialise | 339 |
| Theravance/ Mylan | TD-4208- a novel once-daily nebulised long-acting muscarinic antagonist (LAMA) – COPD | Collaboration – develop and commercialise | 265 |
| Meritage Pharma/ Shire | Phase 3-ready oral budesonide suspension (OBS) – eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) | Corporate acquisition | 245†† |
| Vernalis/ Not disclosed | Adenosine receptor antagonist programme, including the lead drug candidate, V81444 | Licence | 201 |
| GlycoVaxyn/ GSK | Conjugation platform plus early stage vaccines against bacterial infections such as pneumonia, Pseudomonas, S. aureus and Shigellosis | Corporate acquisition | 190 |
| **Amarin/ Eddingpharm | VASCEPA® (icosapent ethyl) – triglyceride level reduction | Collaboration – develop and commercialise | 169 |
| Orca Pharmaceuticals/ AstraZeneca | Retinoic acid-related orphan nuclear receptor gamma (RORγ) inhibitors – autoimmune diseases | Collaboration – discover, develop, commercialise | 122.5 |
| ***Neutec/ Takeda | Portfolio of 13 drugs – GI, respiratory, metabolic and musculoskeletal | Asset acquisition – products | 121 |
| †Eagle Pharmaceuticals/ Teva | EP-3102 – bendamustine hydrochloride rapid infusion product – CLL, indolent B-cell NHL | Licence – distribute and promote | 120 |
All deals global unless otherwise stated:
* US and Canada
** China, Hong Kong, Macao Special Administrative Regions, Taiwan
*** Turkey
† US
†† Financial details source – Viropharma’s 2013 Consolidated Financial Statement
Abbreviations:
IDO, Indoleamine-2, 3-dioxygenase; TDO, Tryptophan-2,3- dioxygenase
COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia; NHL, indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma
