Deals
On the heels of several big buys, Merck still has eyes for M&A—particularly in the oncology, immunology and cardiometabolic spaces—as the quest continues for a candidate that can top Keytruda.
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Gilead, AstraZeneca and Vertex have acquired more than just a therapeutic asset in recent deals. BioSpace takes a look at five recent transactions where the staff was the real centerpiece.
Gilead Sciences has inked three deals this year so far totaling $14.77 billion, a marked escalation of the company’s usual M&A pace. Executives detailed the rationale for buying Arcellx, Ouro Medicine and Tubulis GmbH and whether they are interested in further deals.
Deal-hungry Big Pharmas, a long-sought biotech prize, an infrequent buyer and one serial biotech rabblerouser highlight a busy quarter in biopharma M&A.
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Sun Pharmaceutical is bringing Merck spinoff Organon into the fold, paying $11.75 billion in hopes of becoming a top global biosimilar player.
Eli Lilly is picking up Ajax Therapeutics and its once-daily oral blood cancer candidate. The deal follows the pharma’s buyouts of ADC specialist CrossBridge Bio and in vivo CAR T company Kelonia Therapeutics.
The takeover will give Amneal control of four facilities to manufacture biosimilars for a planned wave of launches in the coming years.
The deals keep rolling in, with Lilly penning a $7 billion pact for gene delivery biotech Kelonia Therapeutics and UCB taking over cell therapy-focused Neurona Therapeutics; President Trump signed a new executive order supporting the development of psychedelic therapies, sparking fanfare and concern alike; and the FDA’s recent Replimune decision has triggered broader debate about the agency’s flexibility.
With programs from Eisai and Hansoh Pharmaceutical in hand, Tortugas Neuroscience has emerged with hopes of delivering daily oral treatments to patients with central nervous system conditions.
After entering the CAR T space in February, Eli Lilly is “jumping into in vivo CAR-T with both feet” with the acquisition of Kelonia Therapeutics and its gene delivery technology.
The acquisition of Neurona will put UCB in both the epilepsy and cell therapy space, even as many of its fellow pharmas move away from the latter modality.
J&J will hand over the rights to bota-vec for $25 million upfront, clearing MeiraGTx to seek regulatory approvals in the U.S. and EU in 2027.
Commitments in obesity- and diabetes-focused deals reached $22 billion in the first quarter of 2026—already eclipsing last year’s total of $20.3 billion, according to a new J.P. Morgan report.
Johnson and Johnson kicked off first-quarter earnings season with a “modest” beat and an ambitious goal; Replimune failed again to gain approval for its advanced melanoma therapy, as analysts tout increased accountability brought by the FDA’s new policy of publicizing complete response letters; and Revolution Medicines’ pancreatic cancer candidate doubled survival in one of cancer’s most intractable foes.