Biopharma Deal Metrics Declined Across The Board In 2024

 
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INFOGRAPHIC: 2024 was a particularly quiet year for biopharma M&A, with no buyouts reaching the $5bn threshold, while alliance volume and valuations declined compared to 2023, as well.

Stoke Gets Runway, Biogen A Late-Stage Asset In Epilepsy Collaboration

 
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Biogen will pay $165m up front for ex-North American rights to Stoke’s Phase III-ready Dravet syndrome candidate, an antisense drug offering disease-modifying potential.

AbbVie Deal Unmasks Promise Of Xilio’s T-Cell Engagers

Masked T-cell engagers are a buzzing field, and AbbVie’s investment has given Xilio some much-needed validation and cash as it goes up against rivals.

Ipsen Pleased With Iqirvo Launch And Plots More Deals

 
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The Paris-headquartered group has been reflecting on a solid performance last year.


M&A Takeoff May Be Delayed, Experts Predict

 

All the elements for a big M&A year are in place, but political uncertainty and interest rates could push more deals into the second half of the year, according to business development experts at BIO CEO & Investor.

SpringWorks Gains New Approval Amid Merck KGaA Buyout Talks

 

After coming up blank with its in-house oncology efforts, the German conglomerate is mulling a deal to acquire the US specialist company which has just managed a new drug approval for mirdametinib.

Novartis Welcomes Abelacimab Back Into The Fold With Anthos Acquisition

 
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The Swiss major may have to pay over $3bn for the dual-acting Factor XI/XIa inhibitor that it originally developed before the drug was passed on to Anthos Therapeutics, founded by private equity firm Blackstone and the Swiss major in 2019.

Alumis To Merge With Acelyrin, But Pause Lonigutamab Program

 

Alumis said it will pause the planned Phase III program for Acelyrin’s lead drug and assess the value of the candidate, which produced underwhelming Phase II results in January.


The Tourette’s Deal That Came Too Late To Save Sweden’s Asarina

 
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Relmada has acquired sepranolone, a potential blockbuster for the complex neurological condition characterized by involuntary tics, for a bargain €3m from the Stockholm group that went into liquidation late last year.

Bain To Acquire Mitsubishi Tanabe In $3.4bn Deal

 

US private equity group to buy Japanese pharma firm in a transaction scheduled to close by September that marks owner's exit from pharma.

Genmab Has First Wholly Owned Antibodies In Phase III, Hunts For More

 
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CMO Tahamtan Ahmadi told Scrip that Genmab hopes to do a deal in 2025 like its ProfoundBio acquisition in 2024 as the company seeks to develop more antibodies entirely on its own.

Deal Watch: Novo Nordisk, IMMvention To Partner On Sickle Cell Disease

 

Plus deals involving Vanda/AnaptysBio, OS Therapies/Ayala, Leveragen/Moonlight Bio, Lantheus/Evergreen, Exicure/GPCR, Arrivent/Lepu, InnoCare/KeyMed/Prolium and more.


GSK’s Walmsley Keeps Focus On Long Term Amid Trump And Tariffs Chatter

 
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The CEO has trumpeted the UK giant’s pipeline and potential growth as it aims for £40bn of sales in six years’ time.

Pfizer Back In The Deal Game In 2025

 

Pfizer CFO Dave Denton said the company is in a position to do bigger deals in 2025 during the company’s fourth quarter sales and earnings call.

Sanofi Happy To Spend To Hit Immunology Top Spot

CEO Paul Hudson has declared that “immunology is effectively our obesity” and the French firm is looking to use its position of strength in the space and its healthy cash pile to bring in early-stage assets.

Genmab Foundations Firm Amid Share Price Slumps

 
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The Danish drugmaker's stock keeps falling as investors wait to see if Johnson & Johnson will opt in to co-develop a successor to the partners' multiple myeloma big earner Darzalex, but analysts have been heralding Genmab's bright prospects for assets such as Epkinly and Rina-S.


Sage Spurns Biogen, Turns Attention To Strategic Review

 
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Sage’s board of directors initiated a search for strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company, but the board rejected a buyout bid from Biogen, its partner on the PPD drug Zurzuvae.

Switzerland’s AB2 Bio Bags Nippon Shinyaku As Late-Stage IL-18 Inhibitor Partner

 
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CEO Djordje Filipovic tells Scrip that after talks with "multiple other potential partners,” the firm chose the Japanese group for its expertise and marketing capabilities in rare diseases” to be the licensing partner for tadekinig alfa in the US.

GSK And Oxford To Collaborate On Neoantigen Vaccines To Prevent Cancer

 

The potentially groundbreaking approach would use immunotherapy or targeted therapies against pre-cancerous cells to prevent cancer from developing at all.

M&A Values Continued To Decline During Q4 2024

 
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Evaluate data show that the biopharma industry made $9.5bn of acquisitions during the fourth quarter, a third consecutive quarter of decline, although deal volume rose to 33 from Q3’s 29.