Biopharma deal values through August are down 13.05% year-over-year, while the number of deals has fallen by 18.51% compared to 2022. M&A value, meanwhile, is down just 3.6% from last year. Through August, 2023 saw 885 biopharma deals worth $111.87 billion, compared to 1,086 deals totaling $128.66 billion in the same period in 2022. The first eight months of 2021 saw 1,386 deals worth $121.22 billion, 1,381 deals valued at $129.96 billion in 2020 and 1,051 deals worth $111.93 billion in 2019.
Insilico Medicine Inc. struck an out-licensing deal with Exelixis Inc. for its small-molecule USP1-inhibitor candidate called ISM-3091, the company said on Sept. 12, standing to gain $80 million in up-front payments.
Hasten Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has licensed greater China rights to Lib Therapeutics Inc.’s next-generation PCSK9 inhibitor lerodalcibep in a deal worth up to $325 million.
Moderna Inc. has more than COVID-19 vaccines in the hopper, and the company aims to add still more oomph by way of an oncology deal with Immatics NV that could be worth more than $1.7 billion for the latter, which banks $120 million up front and stands to collect research funding as well.
Verge Genomics Inc. has entered a second big AI deal with a large drug company. Privately held Verge will receive up to $42 million, including up-front, equity and near-term payments from Alexion, Astrazeneca Rare Disease, to identify multiple targets for rare neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases. The deal could top out at $840 million. There also is potential for downstream royalties.
In its second big pharma deal to date, Shape Therapeutics Inc. drew Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. to the table in a potential $1.5 billion-plus collaboration initially aimed at developing gene therapies for ocular diseases. The multitarget agreement, which includes options for additional targets and tissue types, will combine Shape’s AI-driven adeno-associated virus (AAV) platform and Otsuka’s expertise in ophthalmology to develop intravitreally delivered AAV therapies.
In a mammoth deal with a potentially huge payoff, Nurix Therapeutics Inc. and Seagen Inc. will collaborate to develop what they call a new class of medicines, Degrader-Antibody Conjugates, to create drugs with new mechanisms of action for treating cancer.
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. announced plans to acquire Mindset Pharma Inc. for C$80 million (US$50.76 million) in an all-cash deal that will see Otsuka strengthen its neurology and psychiatric pipeline. Mindset, of Toronto, is developing next-generation psychedelic therapeutics to treat psychiatric and neurological disorders with high unmet needs.
The U.S. FTC’s antitrust challenge to Amgen Inc.’s $27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc has been resolved. Amgen agreed to do what it said it would do all along: not bundle pharmacy benefit manager rebates on high volume blockbuster drugs Tepezza and Krystexxa.
Zevra Therapeutics Inc. will acquire Acer Therapeutics Inc. in a $91 million deal that combines two companies with expertise in rare diseases. Acer has struggled since its hot flash drug, ACER-801 (osanetant), failed to hit statistical significance in a phase IIa proof-of-concept study in March 2023. The stumble came amidst the launch of Acer’s Olpruva, a sodium phenylbutyrate for oral suspension therapy approved by the U.S. FDA in late December 2022 for treating urea cycle disorders. The day before the Zevra merger was announced, Acer reacquired the worldwide development, commercialization and economic rights to Olpruva from its development partner, Relief Therapeutics Inc.
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