Shares of Adaptimmune have skyrocketed since the opening bell on Jan. 13. The stock closed up 200% Monday after the company announced positive results with its SPEAR-T cancer program and has continued to rise this morning after it struck a deal with Astellas Pharma.
Two megamergers meant that 2019 was always going to be a big year for biopharma M&A in dollar terms – and then came a late flurry of deals.
On the corporate front Astellas continued to buy, while Qiagen decided that it was not, after all, up for sale.
Astellas Pharma Inc (4503.T) has bought U.S.-based Xyphos Biosciences Inc to expand its immuno-oncology business, a deal worth up to $665 million including potential development milestones and its second acquisition announced this month.
Historically, metastatic bladder cancer has been “a very bad prognosis,” in the words of Seattle Genetics CEO Clay Siegall. But his company and partner Astellas now have a shot at trying to change that. Wednesday, the FDA approved Padcev, a first-of-its kind antibody drug conjugate.
Pfizer and Astellas' stalwart prostate cancer med Xtandi has watched as Johnson & Johnson's challenger, Erleada, picked up the lead in the metastatic, castration-sensitive form of the disease. But now Xtandi is ready to take on its familiar foe with a new green light of its own, which the FDA granted on Monday.
When the FDA spurned Astellas’ pitch for atrial fibrillation drug vernakalant in 2008, regulators made it abundantly clear that it wasn’t the efficacy they had a problem with — two Phase III trials had shown the drug successfully restored 52% of patients’ heartbeat from irregular to normal — but the cardio safety issues for a drug that was to compete with well established, low-risk options. One licensing deal, one clinical hold and several studies later, the chances of approval aren’t looking any better.
Biotech’s second year of red-hot takeovers is set for a strong finish as Astellas Pharma Inc.’s move to buy Audentes Therapeutics Inc. for about $3 billion comes a week after Novartis AG’s $6.8 billion deal for Medicines Co.
Japan’s Astellas Pharma Inc (4503.T) has agreed to buy Audentes Therapeutics Inc (BOLD.O) for about $3 billion in cash as it seeks to make genetic medicines a key area of growth.
Multibillion-dollar settlements in pharma are a rare occurrence, but things are changing rapidly. Only weeks ago, two drugmaker deals were floated that would rank among the biggest ever if they are eventually approved.
The first—a whopping $23 billion deal from Teva to end thousands of state and local opioid lawsuits—would simply (and laughably) blow every other settlement out of the water. The largest deal ever approved was Merck’s $4.85 billion agreement in 2007 to settle thousands of suits against its arthritis drug Vioxx.