Plus the 10 largest M&A deals of 2024

This Week

Jan 17, 2025

Check out our daily recaps with all the news from JPM, alongside all of Fierce Pharma and Fierce Biotech’s coverage of one of the busiest weeks in biopharma


BMS, Pfizer and Merck CEOs address key patent cliffs and plans to replace sales


Gilead roars into JPM25, inking $1.7B inflammation deal with Leo Pharma


Johnson & Johnson makes a splash, buying out Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6B


Roche has access to $10B in M&A firepower per year, pharma CEO says. Where will it spend the money?


Eli Lilly strikes $2.5B Scorpion buyout in twist to breast cancer tale


SPECIAL REPORT—The top 10 biopharma M&A deals of 2024 

 

Featured

BMS, Pfizer and Merck CEOs address key patent cliffs and plans to replace sales

Each year at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, pharma CEOs are tasked with assuring and convincing investors that they’ve positioned their companies to overcome expected challenges. Monday, three Big Pharma leaders took center stage and addressed concerns about future patent expirations head-on.

 

Top Stories

Gilead roars into JPM25, inking $1.7B inflammation deal with Leo Pharma

Gilead continues its divergence out of its original infectious disease beginnings and into cancer and, now, more deeply than before, into inflammation, penning a major $1.7 billion deal with dermatology specialist Leo Pharma just a few days before the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Johnson & Johnson makes a splash, buying out Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6B

Johnson & Johnson has opened the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference with a bang, buying out Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6 billion. At $132 per share, J&J paid a 39% premium on Friday’s closing price of Intra-Cellular, a New York City based biotech that develops and markets products for the central nervous system.

Roche has access to $10B in M&A firepower per year, pharma CEO says. Where will it spend the money?

Roche has about $10 billion in M&A firepower it can deploy every year, but it’s “not just going to spend money,” the company’s pharma CEO Teresa Graham said at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

Eli Lilly strikes $2.5B Scorpion buyout in twist to breast cancer tale

Eli Lilly is reenergizing its attempt to challenge Novartis and Roche for a breast cancer market, kicking off the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference with a deal to buy Scorpion Therapeutics’ PI3Kα pipeline for up to $2.5 billion.

The top 10 biopharma M&A deals of 2024

While the overall volume of pharma and life sciences M&A activity was healthy in 2024 versus historic levels, deals trended toward the smaller side, reducing the total deal value observed for the year. That inclination for large pharma companies to pursue small and mid-sized transactions is likely to persist in 2025, too, analysts at Leerink Partners and PwC have opined.

Eli Lilly's preliminary '24 sales figures show a continued easing in breakneck GLP-1 market

Like many other biopharma companies presenting at this year’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Eli Lilly took a chance on Tuesday to share its preliminary sales results for 2024. Unfortunately for the company, however, the early glimpse at its fourth-quarter performance doesn’t seem to be going over well with investors.

Dexcom predicts 2025 growth, with Stelo pushing portfolio updates

The blood sugar tracking company offered a preliminary look at its annual and fourth-quarter earnings report at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.

Amid Samsung Bio's rapid expansion, CDMO weighs plan to build a 6th plant

One day after Samsung Biologics revealed in a regulatory filing that it had signed its largest contract in company history, the CDMO giant said it's considering the construction of a sixth manufacturing plant.

Grifols garners $21M grant from Michael J. Fox Foundation to hunt for early Parkinson's disease biomarkers

Spanish pharma giant Grifols is leveraging its massive collection of plasma samples to look for early biomarkers of Parkinson’s disease (PD) thanks to a $21 million grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.

Y-mAbs splits from commercial chief, tasks new hire with growing cancer drug sales

Y-mAbs Therapeutics is parting ways with its chief commercial officer and putting a new hire in charge of the cancer drug Danyelza. The biotech made the changes, which include “a small adjustment” to the commercial team, as part of a rethink that could put 13% of its employees out of work.
 
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Communicating the Value of Biopharma Assets to Potential Investors

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