Life sciences M&A roundup: July 2024

Here's the latest biopharma M&A update for July. Our overall feeling was of a subdued market with only a handful of announced biotech deals, but still with relatively positive momentum moving into the second half of the year. 

The major news for pharma, and the only public company deal in July, was Eli Lilly and Company's $3.2bn acquisition of Morphic which has a Phase 2 small molecule oral inhibitor drug for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (among some other preclinical drugs for the treatment of autoimmune, pulmonary hypertensive and fibrotic diseases and cancer).

We have flagged the move to more private company acquisitions in prior posts and this was evident in July with three reported deals: 

• Firstly in eye care (glaucoma) with Alcon's acquisition of BELKIN vision for $81m upfront and the potential for a further $385m pending sales milestones.
• Secondly German pharmaceutical company Grunenthal will buy Valinor Pharma which has an on the market oral constipation drug, Movantik, for $250m.
• Lastly Ligand will acquire neuroblastoma focused Aperion Biologics for $100m all cash (with additional milestones).

CDMOs were active in M&A this month with two dermatology CDMOs, Medpharm and Tergus Pharma, announcing a merger to position themselves as a global leader in delivering drug development and manufacturing to companies focused on advancing topical and transepithelial pharmaceuticals, and separately the acquisition by Olon Group of French company, GTP Bioways Group, which has four sites across France. The commercial terms of these deals were not available. 

Within the broader life sciences space, Illumina agreed to buy Fluent Biosciences in cash for an undisclosed amount to bolster its single cell analysis program. 

A further note on the impressive scale of life sciences funds (both VC and company creation models) being raised this month with the likes of Flagship Pioneering's $3.6bn July raise and Foresite Capital's $900m raise. Although in our view we're still in a relatively risk-on environment, the signals for private companies looking to raise over the coming months remain strong.