Merck KGaA Keeps Powder Dry On Licensing Deals

Merck KGaA is taking a relaxed view to M&A and licensing activities in its healthcare segment, believing its existing portfolio and pipeline is enough to be focusing on for the time being.

So said CEO Belén Garijo when asked by Scrip whether the return to more rational valuations for biotechs meant that the environment for dealmaking had become more attractive. She noted that the German group had not been idle on the BD front, highlighting the recent licensing of xevinapant, a potentially first-in-class potent oral antagonist of IAPs (inhibitor of apoptosis proteins) from Debiopharm S.A