Physicians Pushing Back Against Private Equity Firm Buyouts
Private equity firms are increasingly taking over small medical groups and nabbing hospital contracts in the process. To fight back against this growing trend, a group of providers formed the Association for Independent Medicine (AIM). AIM argues that practices like rolling smaller groups into larger companies or the sale-leaseback model are hurting providers and patients.
US Senator Elizabeth Warren Asks FTC to Investigate Two Pharma Mergers
US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has expressed her concerns regarding two upcoming major pharma mergers, calling for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate them. The two mergers are Amgen’s planned acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics for $28 billion and Indivior’s $145 million buyout of Opiant, the current owner of the opioid overdose rescue medication Narcan.
Chiesi Acquires Amryt Pharma in $1.48B Deal to Broaden Rare Disease Efforts
Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A and Amyryr Pharma Plc have announced a new deal wherein the former will acquire the latter in an all-cash transaction topping $1.48 billion. The deal would provide Chiesi access to Amryt’s drug pipeline, with a focus on broadening its efforts in therapeutic development for treatments for rare diseases.
Becker’s Payers Issues: Humana in 2022
A newly released article in Becker’s Payers Issues revisits their biggest stories of 2022 about the payer giant Humana. In May, they covered the partnership they made with the Welsh, Carson, Anderson, & Stowe to expand its value-based primary care clinic offerings. In July, Humana announced it would split, with the company divided into an insurance provider and Centerwell.
Walgreens to Buy Out the Rest of Shields Health in $1.37 Billion Deal
Walgreens is finishing its acquisition of Shields Health in a new deal worth $1.37 billion. The pharmacy giant, which already owns 71% of Shield Health, will buy the remaining shares of the company. Shields is a specialty pharmacy that provides therapeutics to 30 health systems. The move will come with a bit of an executive shakeup.
Illumina Strategizes After Grail Acquisition Setback With EU
Illumina is looking at its options after its acquisition of Grail was recently blocked by an EU commission. The company intended to scale up Grail’s cancer test development and production, but the commission nixed the merger due to concerns Grail’s competitors could be blocked from using Illumina’s sequencing technology, slowing development and squashing competition in the cancer testing market.
CVS Makes $8 Billion Deal to Acquire In-Home Care Provider Signify Health
CVS and Signify Health have come to an agreement on an acquisition deal. CVS is set to purchase Signify, a company that provides in-home care to patients, both virtually and in-person. This deal would allow CVS to expand its offerings into the care provider space, a move many industry giants have eyed in recent years.
Novo Nordisk Picks Up Forma Therapeutics for $1.1 Billion
Novo Nordisk has reached an agreement to acquire Forma Therapeutics for $1.1 billion. A key therapeutic Novo Nordisk will acquire with the purchase is etavopivat, Forma’s drug candidate for sickle cell disease (SCD). The drug is being developed to help treat the anemia and damage to red blood cells caused by the genetic disorder, which affects 17 million people globally.
Regulatory Filing Shows Bidding War Between Major Retailers Over One Medical
Major retailers have increasingly eyed tech-enabled care providers for M&As in recent years, as typified by Amazon’s recent purchase of One Medical. A recent regulatory disclosure shows that another big retailer was vying for the company, CVS. The pharmacy giant had been in discussions with One Medical as early as October of last year.
Gilead Spends $455 Million for Rights to New Breast Cancer Drug in Asia
Hot off the heels of Gilead’s June approval for Troldelvy for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) drug in China, the company has agreed to a deal buying exclusive rights to sell the drug in Asia from the China-based Everest Medicines. This agreement gives Gilead global control of Troldelvy’s distribution. Gilead got the drug in its $21 billion acquisition of Immunomedics, which previously sold the rights to the drug to Everest.
Australian Mining Billionaire Leans Into Biotech
Billionaires have leaned hard into biotech investments in recent years, backing small and large companies alike. Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest has joined the gang with his quarter-billion dollar venture fund Tenmile. Forrest, whose fortunes come from his Australian mining business, has also acquired two other biotechs in Australia, a market that is regularly overlooked by investors.
Bristol Meyer Squibb Eyes More Major M&As
Last Wednesday, July 27th, Bristol Meyer Squibb’s CEO Giovanni Caforio signaled that the company has the resources to grow its holdings and it intends to do so. The company’s sales this Q2 were more than double the same period last year, giving the company more than enough funds to build off recent acquisitions.
J&J Tamps Down M&A Ambitions
Johnson & Johnson’s new CEO Joaquin Duato has repeatedly told analysts and investors that the company was going to pursue an aggressive M&A campaign. In a call earlier today, July 19th, Duato signalled a shift and toned down those ambitions as the company’s expected 2022 sales growth dropped from 4-5% to 3%. However, this does not mean that J&J has completely written off any acquisitions.
Royalty Pharma Buys Theravance to Get Royalties on GSK COPD Drug Trelegy Ellipta
Royalty Pharma has bought 85% of Theravance Biopharma to access royalty rights to its chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) drug [...]
Potential FTC Crackdown Looms Large over Merck’s Potential Seagen Acquisition
The threat of antitrust intervention weighs heavily over reports that Merck is inching closer to its potential acquisition of Seagen. [...]
AstraZeneca Acquires T Cell Biotech TeneoTwo in $1.27 Billion Deal
AstraZeneca is expanding into the T cell engager market with its acquisition of TeneoTwo. The small biotech just recently sold off two of its sub-companies to Abbvie and Amgen, as well as raising $60 million in funding to maintain some of the its remaining operations under its control. Astrazeneca is purchasing the TeneoTwo to pick up one of its main drugs.
Pfizer Will Earn $16 Billion from Selling Shares in GSK Consumer Health Joint Venture
Pfizer has announced its exit from the consumer health market. In 2019, the company teamed up with Glaxo-Smith Klein (GSK), [...]
Astorg Makes Deal with Amulet Capital Partners to Acquire OPEN Health
Astorg has announced that it will acquire OPEN Health from Amulet Capital Partners. OPEN Health, headquartered in London, UK, is [...]
Catalyst Shareholders Say $60 Million Vertex Deal Could’ve Happened in 2019
Shortly after Catalyst Biosciences closed its deal with Vertex, shareholders have come forward expressing that it was too little, too [...]
RWJ Foundation Study Reveals Unhealthiest County US State
Health disparities in the US exist on the state and county level, with several rural areas experiencing significantly higher levels [...]
CSL’s Acquisition of Vifor Pharma Hits Antitrust Snags
The multinational biotech CSL’s planned purchase of Vifor Pharma has been put on pause due to antitrust concerns. The $11.7 [...]
Pfizer Purchases Biohaven; Gains Rights to Leading Migraine Drug
Pfizer has announced an $11.6 billion deal to acquire the biotech Biohaven. This deal gives Pfizer rights to Nurtec, a [...]
Biotech Predicts Reduced COVID Sales and Signals Potential M&As
Despite tripling their sales last quarter, BioNTech’s CFO Jens Holstein signaled to investors that mergers and collaborations may be in [...]
