Two multinational pharmaceutical companies invested heavily in acquisitions, both with a transaction value of more than US$1 billion

On January 9, AstraZeneca issued a statement announcing that it would acquire CinCor Pharma, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company in the United States, for nearly $1.
8 billion to strengthen its cardiac and kidney drug product line
.
CinCor Pharma develops drugs
to treat high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease.
AstraZeneca said investors will receive $26 in cash for each Cincor share, as well as a $10 non-tradable interest per share, subject to the company's drug approval
.
With this acquisition, AstraZeneca will strengthen the cardiorenal pipeline
by adding CinCor Pharma's drug candidate, baxdrostat (CIN-107).
baxdrostat is an aldosterone synthase inhibitor (ASI) used to lower blood pressure in patients with treatment-resistant hypertension, and CinCor Pharma holds an exclusive worldwide license to baxdrostat, which will remain in effect
after the acquisition 。 On the same day, pharmaceutical company Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
and Royalty Pharma plc announced that Royalty Pharma acquired Ionis' patent rights in Biogen SPINRAZA® (nusinersen) and Novartis Pelacarsen for up to $1.
125 billion.
Includes $500 million upfront and up to $625 million in additional milestone payments
.
According to Dr.
Brett P.
Monia, CEO of Ionis, "This transaction provides the Company with significant capital to achieve the Company's strategic objectives, the first of which is to prepare
for the commercialization of late-stage projects eplontersen, olezarsen and donidalorsen.
In fact, with the patent cliff approaching and the increasing competition, many pharmaceutical companies have now reported acquisitions, including products, shares and so on
.
According to incomplete statistics, in the first half of 2022 alone, the valuation of M&A transactions in the pharmaceutical industry has reached US$61.
7 billion, with more than 130 transactions
.
Among them, the acquisitions of multinational pharmaceutical companies have been very frequent, and large pharmaceutical companies such as Takeda and Amgen have also announced that they will carry out acquisition activities and spend a lot of
money.
Amgen, for example, agreed on Dec.
12 to acquire biotech star Horizon Therapeutics for $27.
8 billion, aiming to strengthen its portfolio of rare disease drugs
.
According to public information, Horizon was founded in 2008 and launched in 2011, and its product line mainly covers ophthalmic, rare diseases, immune diseases and inflammatory drugs
.
The industry believes that how to reduce the impact of the patent cliff on the future performance of companies has obviously become a "mid-life crisis" for major multinational pharmaceutical companies, and among many solutions, mergers and acquisitions have obviously become a common and simple means
.
According to the current revenue of most multinational pharmaceutical companies, they have enough cash to support the non-stop "buying, buying, buying"
.
Therefore, in the future, in the market environment of the overall valuation of innovative drugs, it may bring more acquisition opportunities
for multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed herein constitute investment advice
to anyone.