By Kate Goodwin Pictured: Illumina sign in San Diego/iStock, Georgejason After months of upheaval, Illumina named Jacob Thaysen its new CEO Tuesday, replacing Francis deSouza who stepped down in June after losing a proxy fight with billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn. Thaysen, the former senior vice president of Agilent Technologies and president of its life sciences and applied markets group, will take the reins Sept. 25. He has his work cut out for him. The DNA-sequencing technology company has faced a rocky road since its acquisition agreement with cancer diagnostics maker GRAIL in September 2020. The deal faced scrutiny from both the Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission due to concerns over antitrust laws. In April, activist investor Carl Icahn went after then-CEO Francis deSouza and campaigned to replace three of Illumina’s board members. While his efforts only got him one seat on the board, deSouza did step down ...
Amgen and Horizon Therapeutics have reached a consent order agreement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to resolve an ongoing administrative lawsuit. This sets the stage for Amgen to proceed with the last steps in finalising the acquisition of Horizon. In December last year, Amgen reached an agreement to acquire the complete issued and to-be-issued ordinary share capital of Horizon Therapeutics for $116.50 (€107.82) per share in cash or nearly $27.8bn on a fully diluted basis. As a result of the agreement, Amgen and Horizon anticipate submitting joint proposals to dismiss the preliminary injunction motion and lift the temporary restraining order (TRO) in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In May this year, the FTC took legal action in federal court to prevent the transaction, arguing that it would allow Amgen to leverage rebates from its successful drugs to exert influence over insurance companies and pharmacy ...
Zerva Therapeutics, formerly KemPharm, has announced a strategic acquisition of Acer Therapeutics to expand its rare therapies portfolio. The biggest Acer assets include the marketed rare therapy Olpruva (sodium phenylbutyrate formulation), and late-stage drug celiprolol. The acquisition is expected to be worth up to $91m in stock and cash payments, of which $76m is contingent upon milestone-based payments for Olpruva and celiprolol. Additionally, Zerva purchased Acer’s secured debt of more than $17m at a discounted value of $16.5m from its creditor, Nantahala Capital. The news caused Acer’s stock to skyrocket by 140% when the markets opened on 31 August. Zerva has a market cap of $165.25m, with a reported Q1 2023 revenue of $2.9m, as per the company’s financial report. Whilst Acer reported a loss of $8.1m in Q2 2023, as per the company’s Q2 financials. Olpruva is an oral suspension approved for the treatment of urea cycle disorders by ...
By Kate Goodwin Novo Nordisk has again bought a weight-loss focused biotech, as the obesity market heats up. Announced Wednesday, the Danish pharma plans to buy Embark Biotech for $16.3 million up front with close to $500 million on the line in milestone payments—Novo’s second obesity-focused acquisition in three weeks. Novo participated in the seed round for Embark in 2017 when the biotech spun out from Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen. The company said it was founded on the discovery of a “novel target that suppresses appetite increases energy expenditure and enhances insulin sensitivity.” The acquisition announced Wednesday gives Novo full rights to develop and commercialize Embark Biotech’s lead metabolic program, currently in preclinical stages. Included is a three-year R&D collaboration with Embark Laboratories, a new company being formed by the biotech’s team to develop therapies for obesity and related conditions, with ...
By objecting to Amgen’s deal for Horizon, the FTC put to the test new ideas about how drugmaker mergers can harm consumers. Typically, regulators have maintained that overlaps between competing products can give combining companies a more powerful market position, and have sought divestments as a resolution. However, in this case, the FTC argued that Amgen could use rebates and discounts on established drugs like Enbrel to secure favorable insurance coverage for Horizon drugs like Tepezza and Krystexxa. The FTC claimed Amgen has a history of using such “cross-market bundling” practices. The Horizon acquisition was one of the first major opportunities for the FTC to apply the new framework for reviewing pharmaceutical mergers, which agency leadership laid out early in the Biden administration. A pre-trial settlement could reveal the evidence regulators have compiled to support their case, and indicate whether they believe they can prevail in court. In a statement ...
Dive Brief Danaher plans to buy Cambridge, England-based Abcam for about $5.7 billion in cash, the companies announced on Monday. The acquisition would bring together two firms that make equipment and supplies for life sciences companies. Abcam, with a market capitalization of $5.2 billion, would operate as a standalone company under Washington, D.C.-based Danaher, which has a market cap of $191.7 billion. Danaher reportedly outbid other companies including Agilent Technologies, Reuters wrote on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Dive Insight Abcam, a maker of antibodies, reagents, biomarkers and assays for life science companies, began a review of strategic alternatives in June. A proxy battle waged this summer between the company’s founder and its CEO attracted “strategic inquiries from multiple parties,” Abcam said in a June statement. The company evaluated more than 20 potential acquirers, Abcam said on Monday. The agreement values Abcam at about $24 per share. The ...
Dive Brief Venture capital investment in medtech startups increased sequentially in the second quarter, in both volume and value, according to the financial database PitchBook. Activity remains down from last year, and well down from the highs hit in 2021, but the PitchBook analysts think funding bottomed out in the first quarter and will “inch upwards over the rest of the year.” The analysts also speculated that M&A activity could pick up now that large companies “have worked through their numerous spinoff and spinout plans.” On Wednesday, wound care device maker Sanuwave Health announced it plans to go public through a $127.5 million merger agreement with SEP Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Dive Insight VC investment in medtech fell across 2022, and the downward trend in deal value continued in the first quarter of 2023. The second quarter brought potential signs that a recovery is starting. Deal ...
Amongst fierce competition in the obesity space, Novo Nordisk has spent $1bn to acquire Inversago Pharma to shore up its weight loss treatment portfolio. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of 2023 and will hit the billion-dollar mark, subject to developmental and commercial milestones. The deal, which comes a month after Eli Lilly acquired Versanis and its lead weight loss candidate, bimagrumab, in a $1.9bn deal, will include Inversago’s lead asset INV-202, an oral cannabinoid receptor type-1 (CB1) inverse agonist. Novo Nordisk said it intends to use the candidate for patients with obesity and obesity-related complications. Canada-based Inversago demonstrated the weight loss potential of the candidate in a Phase Ia trial by blocking the CB1 receptor, which plays an important role in appetite regulation and metabolism. INV-202 is currently in a Phase II trial for diabetic kidney disease (NCT05514548). Prior to the 10 August announcement, Novo ...
Pfizer is shelling out $43 billion to acquire Seagen primarily for the Seattle biotech’s antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) capabilities. But a trial win for a small-molecule cancer drug makes the deal more attractive. Seagen on Wednesday said a phase 3 trial testing a combination of its Tukysa and Roche’s Kadcyla has hit its main goal in patients with previously treated HER2-positive breast cancer. Compared with Kadcyla and placebo, the combo significantly reduced the risk of tumor progression or death, Seagen said. Data on patient survival remain immature. Seagen plans to share the detailed results from the HER2CLIMB-02 trial at a medical meeting and will discuss them with the FDA, the company’s R&D chief, Roger Dansey, said in a statement. The positive results further de-risk the Seagen acquisition by Pfizer, Leerink Partners analysts said in a Wednesday note. Since securing FDA approval in 2020, Tukysa has been used alongside trastuzumab (Herceptin) and ...
Speculation that Stada Arzneimittel may be looking for a buyout has largely been confirmed after the company’s CEO said as much in a recent German-language news story. Responding to recent acquisition rumors, Stada CEO Peter Goldschmidt told the German Press Agency, “Whether and when STADA might be sold is solely the decision of our owners; Bain Capital and Cinven.” From the company’s view, Goldschmidt said, “our owners are in an orientation phase in which initial exploratory talks are taking place.” A Stada press representative emailed a translated version of the remarks early Tuesday along with the company’s second-quarter results. Goldschmidt added that he doesn’t expect a decision before 2024. Additionally, the company’s investors “have no pressure to sell,” the CEO pointed out. “What speaks in favor of a sale process is that it is common for financial investors to exit after five to six years,” Goldschmidt opined. Early this month, ...
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