M&A is off to a hot start in 2017; Too bad we can't say the same for gen­der par­i­ty

End­points News as­sess­es the big bio­phar­ma R&D sto­ries of the week, with a lit­tle added com­men­tary on what they mean for the in­dus­try.

M&A trans­ac­tions are look­ing brighter this year, and val­u­a­tions re­main high

Two big M&A deals Thurs­day, the $30 bil­lion ac­qui­si­tion of Acte­lion and Cel­gene’s pact to ac­quire new­born Delinia for $300 mil­lion up­front, are rais­ing hopes that 2017 will be rich in buy­outs. The still-pre­clin­i­cal Delinia had just raised a $35 mil­lion A round a few months ago, mean­ing that Sofinno­va Part­ners and At­las Ven­ture made out like ban­dits on that one. Acte­lion CEO Jean-Paul Clozel al­so proved that he could get just about every­thing he want­ed from J&J: A rich cash deal plus a new com­pa­ny that will spin out Acte­lion’s promis­ing pipeline. Ear­li­er, Take­da proved how much biotech as­sets are go­ing for when it paid $5.2 bil­lion for Ari­ad — bid­ding against it­self in the process. There’s al­so plen­ty of pent up de­mand for M&A. Throw in some com­pa­nies that al­most have to shoot for a ma­jor deal this year — Gilead, Bio­gen, Sanofi, among oth­ers – and you have the mak­ings for some brisk bid­ding wars ahead. That kind of M&A en­vi­ron­ment will do two things: Help buoy IPOs, as we’ve al­ready seen in an ear­ly glimpse, and keep ven­ture cash pump­ing in­to biotech. M&A is a very at­trac­tive al­ter­na­tive to IPOs now. And un­less the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion does some­thing soon to re­al­ly douse the mar­ket en­vi­ron­ment for drug­mak­ing, 2017 is shap­ing up as a very in­ter­est­ing year.

This article is for premium subscribers only

Upgrade to a premium subscription plan for unlimited access, and join our community of key biopharma players.

UPGRADE