Merger Monday comes back to biotech
Merck and Sanofi committed more than $5 billion combined yesterday to buy a pair of small drug companies, further buoying a resurgent market for biotech.
As STAT’s Matthew Herper reports, the deals have very little in common. Merck, in buying a company called ArQule, is investing in the decades-old idea of targeting genetic mutations to treat specific tumors. Sanofi, by contrast, is acquiring the startup Synthorx in hopes of using synthetic DNA to craft science-fiction medicines for cancer and auto-immune disease.
But each buyout underlines an industry truism: Major drug companies have lots of money and a persistent need to come up with novel ideas. Yesterday’s two deals follow a string of recent acquisitions that seemed to remind investors of just where those ideas tend to come from. The XBI biotech index has been setting 2019 highs all month, and it’s now up about 30% on the year.
Read more.
As STAT’s Matthew Herper reports, the deals have very little in common. Merck, in buying a company called ArQule, is investing in the decades-old idea of targeting genetic mutations to treat specific tumors. Sanofi, by contrast, is acquiring the startup Synthorx in hopes of using synthetic DNA to craft science-fiction medicines for cancer and auto-immune disease.
But each buyout underlines an industry truism: Major drug companies have lots of money and a persistent need to come up with novel ideas. Yesterday’s two deals follow a string of recent acquisitions that seemed to remind investors of just where those ideas tend to come from. The XBI biotech index has been setting 2019 highs all month, and it’s now up about 30% on the year.
Read more.
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