Sanofi, Celgene to spend combined $20B on separate biopharma deals
Monday morning saw the announcement of two very expensive acquisitions in the biopharmaceutical industry: France’s Sanofi buying U.S. hemophilia drugmaker Bioverativ and Celgene spending $9 billion to buy the remaining 90 percent of cancer immunotherapy specialist Juno Therapeutics.
As summarized by Reuters, the two megadeals were driven by a need for big pharmaceutical companies to find high-value replacements for their own older treatments that are no longer selling as well. If they can’t make those products from within, the best option is to buy out another company which already has something valuable.
“It takes a long time to introduce technology that makes a significant difference, and in the interim CEOs are looking at any way to get their hands on product where they believe they can make a decent return,” said Chris Stirling, head of KPMG’s global life sciences practice. “They’ve got to be seen to be doing things, otherwise they really struggle to convince investors.”
2018 had already seen billion dollar deals in biopharma after just a few weeks, including another big purchase by Celgene, which agreed to buy privately owned Impact Biomedicines for as much as $7 billion.
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John joined TriMed in 2016, focusing on healthcare policy and regulation. After graduating from Columbia College Chicago, he worked at FM News Chicago and Rivet News Radio, and worked on the state government and politics beat for the Illinois Radio Network. Outside of work, you may find him adding to his never-ending graphic novel collection.