Closed and Collaborative: Mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships in July 2024

Summer’s stretch having drawn out a longer return to our round-ups, as the days shorten and we firmly enter autumn, pharmaphorum takes a look back at the industry mergers and acquisitions that took place during those warmer months, as well as a fair few partnerships - fulfilling this column’s aim to provide an overview of what’s been happening when it comes to life sciences companies coming together.

In this edition of Closed and Collaborative, we hark back to July, when it was revealed that, in terms of mergers, 1988-founded Ampersand Capital Partners’ portfolio company MedPharm Ltd and 2003-founded Great Point Partners’ portfolio company Tergus Pharma came together in a strategic combination that establishes an end-to-end CDMO with robust scientific, clinical trial manufacturing, and commercial production capabilities in ophthalmic, topical, and transepithelial pharmaceutical development. Tergus and MedPharm’s merged capabilities enable commercial production and serialisation to existing formulation development, in vitro testing, and clinical manufacturing within one integrated organisation. Great Point Partners will retain a significant minority ownership stake in the newly combined MedPharm, while Ampersand Capital Partners and also Bourne Partners Strategic Capital assume majority ownership.

It was light on the ground for mergers in July, but of acquisitions there were plenty.

Corza Medical – a global manufacturer of surgical technologies, and portfolio company of private equity firm GTCR – successfully closed its acquisition of the TachoSil manufacturing operations in Linz, Austria, part of Takeda’s global production network. The acquisition will enable Corza Medical, with a global team of over 3,000 employees, to control manufacturing priorities directly, accelerating enhanced service levels and support to surgeons, partners, and patients globally.

We also learned that pan-European Agilitas Private Equity’s portfolio company, Prodieco, an independent non-OEM producer of blister tooling change parts for the global pharmaceutical industry, acquired GEMEL Precision Tooling (GEMEL), an Ivyland, Pennsylvannia-based provider of precision engineering solutions to the life sciences sector. The acquisition strengthens Prodieco's presence in the US, enabling faster delivery and better service for North American customers, as well as providing a foothold for serving Central & South America.

Meanwhile, GTP Bioways Group, a French company operating across four sites in France as a biotech CDMO – specialising in development, clinical trials, and cGMP manufacturing – was acquired by the Olon Group, integrating into Olon’s Biotech division to support every stage of the lifecycle, from R&D and preclinical phases to industrialisation, through microbial and mammalian fermentation and biotherapeutics. Olon itself has more than four decades of experience in manufacturing cytotoxic products. With the acquisition of GTP Bioways, Olon Biotech will be able to offer full services for the development and production of ADCs, capable of supplying everything from mAbs to linkers, payloads, conjugation, and fill and finish.

Another acquisition in July was Pentixapharm AG’s purchase of Berlin-based Glycotope GmbH’s target discovery business. A 2019-founded clinical-stage biotech company discovering and developing novel targeted radiopharmaceuticals against a range of malignancies, Pentixapharm adds an integrated team of 40 executives, R&D specialists, and administrators to its staff in the deal, which encompasses a portfolio of preclinical antibodies against multiple oncology targets that can be developed into radiopharmaceuticals. It also includes Glycotope’s laboratories, cell banks, tumor target data base, and the equipment needed to exploit the discovery platform, along with a range of patents, licenses, and other tangible assets. The transaction will also affect the composition of the Pentixapharm Management Board once the company becomes listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Ghent-based Anacura acquired OHMX.bio that same month, adding multi-omics for drug discovery and diagnostics to its services. Anacura is an independent analytical centre of excellence in both healthcare and drug development, with 250 employees, offering personalised and evidenced-based laboratory solutions. Acquiring the 2019-established OHMX.bio complements ongoing initiatives within the company. OHMX.bio specialises in combining multi-omic technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, in combination with advanced bio-informatics to speed up the discovery process and control of biologics and advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), such as asmRNA vaccines and CAR-T cells.

Also in July, Rosemont Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a developer, manufacturer, and distributor of liquid medicines for over 50 years, acquired Sabal Therapeutics and its affiliates Metacel Pharmaceuticals, Palmetto Pharmaceuticals, Athena Bioscience, and Sarras Health – a group of privately owned specialty pharmaceutical companies and distributors of prescription, liquid medicines, based in Watkinsville, Georgia in the US. The acquisition further enhances Rosemont’s ability to serve patients with swallowing difficulties, providing the company with the ability to supply branded and generic medicines directly into the US market. As of 2024, Rosemont has a portfolio of over 130 oral liquid medicines across a range of therapeutic areas, including over 100 licensed products in 27 international markets.

A furth acquisition in July included Ligand Pharmaceuticals acquiring APEIRON Biologics for $100 million. APEIRON shareholders are also entitled to additional consideration based on future commercial and regulatory events and to up to $28 million if Qarziba royalties exceed certain predetermined thresholds by either 2030 or 2034 respectively.

In terms of partnerships, Kudos announced a new partnership with Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine. J&J selected Kudos to amplify the reach and educational impact of publications and other outputs about clinical trials, and so Kudos will create clinical Story pages, comprising plain language summaries of clinical trials, linked to peer reviewed journal articles, and to other article extenders and educational materials. Stories will be clustered into Showcases for specific diseases or therapy areas. The microsites will initially target US audiences, before rolling out the partnership globally.

That same month, PacBio entered into a new partnership with Novogene to fuel genomic research across rare diseases and cancer, as well as agriculture. At its new lab in Munich, Novogene will use PacBio’s Revio machine, which uses long-read sequencing to uncover previously hidden insights related to complex biological conditions, while still being cost effective enough to enable research at scale. The new Novogene lab is at the Innovation and Start-Up Center for Biotechnology (IZB) in Munich and serves as a strategic hub for the company’s European operations, building on its global network of labs across the UK, US, Singapore, Japan, and China.

Meanwhile, Inizio Engage partnered with Nye Health – which was founded by NHS Clinicians – to deliver a transformative patient support experience. The new integrated approach combines Inizio Engage’s patient solutions services with the advanced analytics and data integration of Nye Health’s digital cloud-based platform to provide programmes that resonate with patients and their care partners to improve patient outcomes. Inizio Engage brings together a group of more than 6,000 experts, working in more than 20 countries to the partnership.

Other partnerships in July included Verseon and NeuTheX announcing their partnership to accelerate drug development through the use of NeuTherX’s scalable organoid development technology. Additionally, science-aware lab informatics platform Sapio Sciences and the scientific informatics services company Zifo announced a strategic partnership to bring best-in-class laboratory information management solutions to customers across the biotech, clinical diagnostics, and pharmaceutical industries.