This month’s deals continue pharma’s ongoing love affair with the oncology sector, with at least eight of the deals reported in our top 20 deals of the month in this field.
The prize to the most industrious company this month must go to Celgene as it racked up five deals in the month, with four in just one week! Astra Zeneca (AZ) and Sanofi have also had busy months with three deals apiece; AZ with a focus on looking at combining its lead checkpoint inhibitor with other therapies specifically to target blood cancers. Meanwhile Sanofi is looking to improve its in-house R&D success-rates and reprioritise its portfolio. [Read the month’s pharma deal commentary in full.]
Here Medius present a run down of the month’s biggest mergers, acquisitions and collaborations from across the sector.
| Licensor Acquired / Licensee Acquiror | Deal type | Product/Technology | Headline $m |
| Mylan/Teva | Corporate acquisition * | Generics company | 40,000 |
| Perrigo/Mylan | Corporate acquisition * | Generics / OTC company | 32,700 |
| uniQure NV/ Bristol-Myers Squibb | R&D collaboration plus equity investment | Gene therapy platform – CV diseases | 2,300 |
| Innate Pharma / AstraZeneca | Licence | IPH2201 an anti NKG2A antibody, a first in class humanised IgG4 antibody | 1275 |
| Curadev Pharma /Roche | R&D collaboration | IDO1 and TDO inhibitors (enzymes to mediate cancer-induced immune suppression) | 555 |
| Quanticel /Celgene | Corporate acquisition | Drug discovery business using single cell genomic analysis to decode tumours | 485 |
| AstraZeneca/Celgene | Exclusive collaboration | MEDI4736 – an investigational checkpoint inhibitor in serious blood cancers | 450 |
| Arvinas /Merck & Co | R&D collaboration plus option | PROTAC (proteolysis-targeting chimera) technology that degrades proteins | 434 |
| Ridley/Alltech | Corporate acquisition | Animal nutrition business | 425 |
| Resverlogix/ Shenzhen Hepalink | Licence and equity investment | RVX 208 a selective BET bromodomain inhibitor [turns disease causing genes off] P3 ready – cardiovascular disease patients | 400 |
| Inarcia therapeutics / Investors | Synthetic royalty rights | ICTA650 extended sub-cutaneous delivery of GLP-1 for T2DM | 225 |
| Intec Pharma/ Undisclosed Company | R&D collaboration plus option | Accordian Pill ™ (gastro retentive delivery system) | 151 |
| UCB/ Dr. Reddy’s | Business acquisition | Dermatology, respiratory and paediatric products for South Asia** | 128 |
| Schrodinger/ Sanofi | R&D collaboration | Computational drug design for 10 discovery programs | 120 |
| 4SC AG/Menarini | Licensing and development agreement*** | Resminostat (oral HDAC) for hepatocellular carcinoma | 102 |
| Ichor Medical Systems/ Janssen Pharmaceuticals | R&D collaboration | DNA based vaccines Chronic Hep B using TriGrid electroporation delivery | 85 |
| Agios Pharmaceuticals / Celgene | R&D collaboration and profit share | AG-881 IDH (isocitrate dehydrogenase) mutant inhibitor targets cancer metabolism in blood and solid tumours (AML and glioma) | 80 |
| Innocutis Holdings / Cipher Pharmaceuticals | Corporate acquisition | Dermatology company with US, Canada and Mexico rights to Sitavig | 49 |
| Mesoblast / Celgene | Minority investment and option to license | stem-cell product candidates for conditions including inflammatory bowel disease and certain oncological indications | 45 |
| Northern Biologics / Celgene | R&D collaboration and option to acquire | therapeutic antibodies in oncology and fibrosis | 30 |
* These transactions are not agreed, as of 7 May 2015, both have been rejected by the target companies
**South Asia (India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives) INR 800 Crores
***Asia pacific (Australia,China,Indonesia,Philippines,Republic of Korea,Thailand,Vietnam) €95m