PHARMA DEALS DURING JUNE 2014 

(Part 2 out of 3)

by Sharon Finch

Hot gossip

Rumours were posted by the Financial Times that Shire was about to make a $5 bn bid for NPS Pharmaceuticals. So strong were the rumours that this led to NPS issuing an official denial. Next up was the comment that Allergan was on the cusp of making a bid for Shire, but of course it was pipped at the post by AbbVie confirming that a $46 bn bid ($78.89 per share) had been made (the 28 day offer period closes on July 18).  This offer has been rejected but any move on NPS cannot now go forward as the UK Takeover Code restricts companies from acquiring assets that could be deemed to deter the acquisition during the offer period.

So on a lower scale, Shire remains busy focusing on the day to day business with a move into specialised patient populations targeting the pre-school market via a new clinical study with Vyvanse. Success in this endeavour could secure a six-month data exclusivity. Also building on its R&D collaboration with arGEN-X, Shire entered into a long term alliance paying an upfront of $20.4m (cash and equity) for access to therapeutic antibodies in cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Streamlining is evident at Teva with the company undertaking a major cost cutting exercise.

But it is also looking to build on its pain franchise as noted with its purchase of Labrys Biologics for up to $825 m. This brings access to Labrys' monoclonal antibody drug LBR-101, which is under development for the prevention of chronic and episodic migraine and will clearly complement Copaxone.

Oncology focus and immuno-oncology is still growing

Still keeping its place in the headlines and following its recent licence with Nogra Pharma with the notable $710 m upfront payment, Celgene closed a deal with NanoString Technologies for the development of a companion diagnostic assay to support the development of Revlimid for treatment of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma at a more modest headline of $45 m.

Of course the growth area within oncology is the immunological approach and GSK closed a $350 m co-development and option deal with Adaptimmune. Adaptimmune develops TCR engineered T-cells and the agreement focuses on co-development around the cancer testis antigen NY-ESO-1, to which GSK has an option on the programme though to clinical proof of concept.

Similarly, Pfizer signed up with the French company Cellectis for its CAR-T platform which uses chimeric antigen receptors to reprogramme T-cells to target cancers.  Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer secured exclusive development and marketing rights for 15 targets selected by Pfizer.

Cellectis has reserved 12 other targets and Pfizer will provide preclinical development assistance for four of these. Deal terms include an $80 m upfront payment, R&D funding and up to $185 m in milestones for each candidate, giving an estimated headline value of $2.8 bn.  In addition, Pfizer has agreed to make a 10 per cent equity investment stake purchasing new shares at €9.25 ($12.63) each, representing an estimated $28 m. Instead of arriving at a personalised solution by harvesting individual patient's T-cells, Cellectis is using allogenic CAR-Ts to provide a treatment which should be manufactured and standardised more easily.  Cellectis plans to open a research site in the US to work more closely with Pfizer.

Joining the checkpoint modulator fray, Merck Serono formed a partnership  with Morphosys to discover and develop antibodies against certain immune checkpoints using the Morphosys Ylanthia platform. Financial terms were not disclosed but include milestone and royalties.

Staying with the mid-caps and turning to prostate cancer, Bayer and Orion entered into a joint development deal for ODM-201. This phase III-ready, androgen receptor inhibitor therapy will supplement Bayer's oncology pipeline. The phase II results showed a decline in PSA levels of more than 50% in the study of 124 patients. Bayer paid €50 m ($68 m) upfront payment with further milestones in return for global rights which should complement Xofigo (from the acquisition of Algeta).  The companies will jointly fund the phase III trials.  Orion will retain co-promotion rights in Europe.

Facing the music

Not all of the deals announced this month are related to innovations and acquisitions. Reflecting some of the news flow, we saw Pfizer make a settlement of $325 m for the alleged improper marketing of Neurontin. Pfizer is not the only major pharma in this position; also this month GSK settled US claims of irregular marketing activities in asthma and antidepressants at a reported $105 m.

So the deals keep flowing as we move into the summertime. It will be interesting to see how the major acquisitions play out, following the closure of the Pfizer-AZ saga. Could this be the summer of unrequited proposals?

Fuente: PMLiVE

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