Glioblastoma Start-Ups Get Specific

As adverse side effects or potential safety signals trigger increasing regulatory scrutiny of primary care drugs, large pharmaceutical companies have increasingly looked to obtain—either via licensing deals or acquisitions—access to specialty drugs, particularly in the area of oncology where high unmet medical need and a dearth of treatments offer the promise of an easier path to market. This spring, for instance, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. spent $8.2 billion to acquire Takeda Oncology to obtain rights to bortezomib (Velcade), while Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. ponied up $235 million for Kosan Biosciences Inc., adding two new classes of drugs, epithilones and Hsp90 inhibitors, to its stable of cytotoxic oncology medicines. [See Deal][See Deal]

Pfizer Inc. has been on its own oncology dealmaking odyssey. In addition to announcing the formation of its new oncology business unit at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s...