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The year began with a series of big ticket acquisitions, especially the ones by Sanofi and Celgene. And the trend continued in February.
In fact, the first two months of 2018 have seen pharma and biotech firms receive more money than what all biotech companies raised in entire 2013.
Here’s a look at some of the deals announced in February 2018. We hope this roundup gives you an insight into the breakthrough technologies and business trends of tomorrow.
Bristol-Myers Squibb’s US$ 3.6 billion oncology deal with Nektar
Leading the deal makers in February was Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) which continued to bet big on the potential of immune-oncology in cancer research by striking a US$ 3.6 billion deal with Nektar Therapeutics.
The multi-billion dollar partnership deal will give BMS 35 percent of global profits in Nektar’s lead immuno-oncology program — NKTR-214. The collaboration will evaluate the full-potential of NKTR-214 and BMS’ flagship product Opdivo (nivolumab) across numerous tumors. The collaboration will also establish a broad joint clinical development plan combining NKTR-214 with Opdivo and Opdivo with Yervoy (ipilimumab) in more than 20 indications across nine tumors.
Nektar’s NKTR-214 has a unique target in the Interleukin-2 (IL-2) pathway. IL-2 is a protein that regulates the activities of white blood cells (leukocytes, often lymphocytes) that are responsible for immunity.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
The drug is designed to bind to the CD122 receptor, one of the three subunits of the IL-2 receptor, which is expressed by T-cells as an immune response to stimulate the patient's own immune system to fight cancer. NKTR-214 is designed to grow specific cancer-killing T cells and NK cell populations in the body that fight cancer.
NKTR-214 stimulates these cancer-killing immune cells in the body by targeting CD122 specific receptors found on the surface of these immune cells, known as CD8+ effector T cells and NK cells.
Gilead announces
US$ 3 billion oncology deal with Sangamo Therapeutics
The second major deal in the oncology space last month was Gilead’s US$ 3 billion deal with Sangamo Therapeutics. Doubling down on its US$ 11.9 billion acquisition of Kite in August 2017, Gilead struck the deal with Sangamo to access its zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology.
Gilead’s Kite plans to launch next-generation off-the-shelf cell therapies using ZFN’s gene recognition and gene-editing advantages to further strengthen its position in the growing cell therapy space.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
Following the discovery of gene-editing technologies like CRISPR/Cas9, pharma giants have been exploring all other gene-editing tools including TALENs and ZFN to target underlying genes of cancers and provide potential treatments that eradicate cancer cells without killing adjacent cells.
Under the terms of the deal, Sangamo will receive US$ 150 million upfront and is eligible for up to US$ 3.01 billion in future payments tied to regulatory and other milestones. In return, Sangamo is giving Kite an exclusive license to use its technology in creating allogeneic and autologous anti-cancer cell therapy programs.
The license will expand Kite’s toolkit that it can apply to R&D projects and also provide Kite with a competitive advantage as it keeps the ZFN platform out of the hands of other CAR-T therapies like those at Novartis and Juno, which were recently acquired by Celgene.
Gilead’s US$ 11.9 billion acquisition of Kite Pharma last year was a way to get access to an emerging class of cancer immunotherapies called CAR-T and to offset slowing sales of its hepatitis C medicines.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
Following the Kite acquisition, four months later, Gilead announced its US$ 567 million acquisition of Cell Design, a company developing custom cell engineering technology which is supposed to augment existing research and development programs it acquired through Kite.
All these major acquisitions by Gilead in the CAR-T space demonstrate its focus on CAR-T drugs, a new class of cancer therapies that involve genetically modifying a patient’s own immune cells to better recognize and attack cancer.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
Roche picks up
Google-backed Flatiron for US$ 1.9 billion
Pharmaceutical giant Roche announced it was buying Flatiron Health — a firm developing technology for life science, academics and hospitals — for US$ 1.9 billion. The firm was founded by two ex-Google employees — Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg — and is a cancer-focused start-up.
Roche was already an investor in this New York-based firm and had a 12 percent stake in the company before the buyout. Besides Roche, Flatiron’s biggest investors include Alphabet’s GV (formerly Google Ventures).
If we include Roche’s existing 12 percent stake, the total value of Flatiron Health comes to around US$ 2.1 billion. Flatiron employs 25 people with medical degrees and 104 engineers and technology specialists.
Flatiron has an electronic health record system that collects data from doctors who are treating patients with cancer. This data later becomes useful to researchers and life sciences companies in developing better treatments for cancer. Flatiron has raised more than US$ 300 million from investors such as Roche and Alphabet.
“As a leading technology company in oncology, Flatiron Health is best positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry,” Roche CEO Daniel O’Day said in a statement.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year and will bolster Roche's oncology portfolio.
Big pharma
continues its deal making activity
While the focus of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), Gilead and Roche was on cancer, big pharma companies like AbbVie, Mylan, J&J, AstraZeneca were making deals in February outside the oncology space.
AbbVie’s deal with Voyager Therapeutics: AbbVie and Voyager Therapeutics launched a US$ 1.2 billion partnership to develop and commercialize gene therapies directed against tau for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. In healthy individuals, tau is an abundant protein in the brain that promotes cellular stability and function. In the diseased brain, altered tau accumulates, resulting in impaired brain function and neuronal cell loss.
Theravance’s co-development deal with J&J: Theravance Biopharma announced it had entered into a global co-development and commercialization agreement with Janssen Biotech, Inc., one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, for inflammatory intestinal diseases, including ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.
Theravance will receive an upfront payment of US$ 100 million and will be eligible to receive up to an additional US$ 900 million in potential payments, if Janssen chooses to remain in the collaboration following the completion of certain Phase 2 activities of Theravance’s lead candidate — TD-1473.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
Astra buys antisense drug from Ionis Pharma: AstraZeneca paid Ionis Pharmaceuticals US$ 30 million in cash for an antisense drug which is designed to treat a genetically associated form of kidney disease. Ionis stands to receive up to US$ 300 million in tiered royalties as well as development and regulatory milestones, the company said.
Mylan-Revance join hands for Botox biosimilar: Mylan announced it would pay Revance Therapeutics US$ 25 million upfront, followed by contingent milestone payments upon achievement of additional clinical, regulatory and sales targets, plus sales royalties for the development and commercialization of a proposed biosimilar to Botox (onabotulinumtoxinA).
Revance Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing neuromodulators for treating aesthetic and underserved therapeutic conditions, including muscle movement disorders and pain.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
The company’s lead drug candidate — DaxibotulinumtoxinA for injection (RT002) — is currently in development for the treatment of glabellar lines, cervical dystonia and plantar fasciitis, with the potential to becoming the first long-acting neuromodulator.
Strategically, this partnership with Mylan allows Revance to remain focused on the possible 2020 US launch of their premium, long-acting RT002 neuromodulator, while also benefitting financially from developing a short-acting biosimilar to Botox.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
Our view
Immuno-oncology, gene-editing and big data continue to hog the limelight in the M&A space. These are the technologies where major investments are being made. And with all major pharmaceutical companies looking at these technologies, one can expect a lot more deals to fructify in the months to come.
Click here to view the major deals in February 2018 (FREE Excel version available)
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