A second Big Pharma company has just spent $18B on 2 acquisitions in the space of a week.
3 weeks ago, I posted about AbbVie's quickfire double acquisition of Cerevel and ImmunoGen and questioned whether we were done with Big Pharma M&A for 2023. With 5 days of the year to go, Bristol Myers Squibb pulled off a remarkably similar pair of deals, mirroring the cost ($18B), timeframe (<1 week) and therapeutic areas (Oncology + CNS) of AbbVie's efforts.
First up was a $14B takeout of Schizophrenia drugmaker, Karuna Therapeutics. KarXT is a new type of antipsychotic medicine that has shown great promise in clinical trials so far, helping patients to reduce symptoms without the side effects (weight gain, tiredness etc.) typically associated with current treatments. A decision on its approval is expected by September this year and analysts are projecting KarXT to be a multi-billion dollar drug across several indications.
4 days later, BMS announced a $4.1B acquisition for the recently IPO'd Radiopharma company, RayzeBio. Radiopharmaceutical Therapeutics (RPTs) offer a differentiated precision approach to treating solid tumors and RayzeBio is a known leader in actinium-based RPTs with a very promising pipeline of programs coming through the clinic. Big Pharma competitors in the RPT space include Novartis and Lilly (following their recent $1.4B acquisition of Point Biopharma).
It's been a fast start for BMS CEO, Chris Boerner, who only took the helm at the start of November 2023 - not long after his predecessor had announced a $5.8B deal for the commercial-stage targeted Oncology company, Mirati Therapeutics. BMS will be hit hard by the late-2020s patent cliff as they are set to lose exclusivity on three of their top drugs (Revlimid, Opdivo and Eliquis) before the end of the decade. Like other Big Pharma CEOs, Boerner has made transformative M&A a clear target to plug the impending revenue losses.
Many analysts expect this M&A trend to continue in 2024. Let's see what #jpm2024 has in store for us this year...
#mergersandacquisitions #bigpharma #oncology #neuroscience #radiopharmaceuticals
Congratulations on another great company launch!