While its mRNA COVID-19 vaccination effort gets the most attention these days, Moderna Inc. is also moving in other directions as the company will lead mRNA discovery programs drawn from its early stage pipeline in new collaborations with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Italy’s Chiesi Farmaceutici SpA. These two deals highlight the “huge opportunity for mRNA beyond SARS-CoV-2 and vaccines,” Piper Sandler analysts wrote Sept. 16.
Sinusitis implant company Intersect ENT Inc. has agreed to acquire Fiagon AB Medical Technologies, a manufacturer of electromagnetic surgical navigation systems, for €60 million (US$71.1 million). Under the terms of the agreement, Intersect ENT will pay €15 million at the time of the closing and €15 million annually for the ensuing three years.
HONG KONG – Osaka-based Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. has divested a portfolio of non-core prescription pharmaceuticals products to Greifswald, Germany-based Cheplapharm Arzneimittel GmbH as part of an ongoing program intended to optimize and simplify its portfolio.
In the company’s largest acquisition and potentially the fifth biggest biotech M&A ever, Gilead Sciences Inc. will acquire Immunomedics Inc. for $21 billion in a move that substantially transforms Gilead’s oncology portfolio.
Though falling short of the outright takeover that some may have hoped for, Merck & Co. Inc.’s dual tie-ups with Seattle Genetics Inc. (Seagen) put the latter in solid position to shop for acquisitions of its own.
LONDON – The U.K. government has signed a €1.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) advance purchase agreement with French biotech Valneva SE, for the supply of up to 190 million doses of its attenuated COVID-19 vaccine, VLA-2001.
Click Therapeutics Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH inked a deal valued at more than $500 million to collaborate on the development and commercialization of a prescription-based digital therapeutic for schizophrenia. The mobile application, currently called CT-155, uses cognitive and neurobehavioral techniques to reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia, such as cognitive deficits and impaired social functioning.
Mednax Inc. has inked a definitive agreement through which Radiology Partners will acquire the former's radiology solutions group for $885 million, with an eye toward creating a provider of comprehensive radiology and teleradiology services. El Segundo, Calif.-based Radiology Partners is a physician-owned, on-site radiology practice that partners with about 1,600 radiologists providing services to nearly 1,300 hospitals, clinics and imaging centers across 26 states. When the transaction wraps up, the combined organization, operated under the Radiology Partners name, will include more than 2,400 radiology physicians who provide services in every state plus Washington.