Mergers & acquisitions
Ipsen is penning its second acquisition of the week, this time securing Memo Therapeutics and its midstage monoclonal antibody in a deal that could approach $800 million.
The vibe at BIO 2026 in San Diego last week was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees observing noticeable changes at the FDA and an uptick in dealmaking and IPOs. Plus, a top medical journal this week retracted a pivotal study for Amgen’s rare disease drug Tavneos, which has been in the FDA’s crosshairs since January.
The total of 52 mergers and acquisitions for the first half of 2026 reflects what analysts, industry watchers and executives are saying over and over: M&A is back.
Zymeworks announced a new plan to become a royalty-driven company last year, making Theravance a perfect match.
The star of Ipsen’s acquisition is an MDM2 blocker being proposed as an add-on therapy to ruxolitinib for myelofibrosis. The drug could be available to patients “as early as 2028,” according to Ipsen CEO David Loew.
Dealmaking across biopharma is shifting dramatically as the SEC rolls out new regulations to ease burdens on newly public companies and antitrust review is replaced by drug pricing as the policy concern du jour.
The company is “especially excited” about an immune cell therapy manufacturing technology included in the deal, a Merck KGaA executive said.
Dual and even triple or quadruple track processes have come roaring back in 2026 thanks to a glut of M&A that has refilled investors’ wallets. Big Pharma is being put on notice that time is critical if they want to acquire.
AbbVie scooped up immunology player Apogee Therapeutics for nearly $11 billion in one of the year’s top deals to-date, while Sanofi made a big play to survive its upcoming Dupixent patent cliff; FDA uncertainty continues as the agency changes direction on gene therapies by uniQure and REGENXBIO; and Jef Akst and Annalee Armstrong report back from San Diego.
The combined business entity with Boundless Bio, which will carry Serapha Bio’s name and fold in Boundless Bio, will focus on the development of a gene editor for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
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