Week of December 12, 2016 | Vol. 5, Issue 49
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Passage of legislation aimed at speeding up Food and Drug Administration approvals, combined with an incoming president who has pledged to "cut red tape" at the agency, is expected to usher in a new, more industry-friendly era of drug and device regulation.
The Senate on Wednesday cleared the measure known as the 21st Century Cures bill, which lays out in detail speedier and more pro-industry methods for the FDA to approve new drugs and medical devices. Its supporters, such as PhRMA, the drug-industry association, and AdvaMed, representing device makers, praise it as a way to bring about more innovation and get treatments to patients faster.
Republicans have been pushing for the changes for the past few years, arguing that the FDA takes too long to study scientific evidence and sometimes wrongly insists on large, multiyear clinical studies that delay important treatments to patients.
The bill's mechanisms allow the FDA to use shorter and simpler studies more widely. Under the measure, certain new antibiotics could see shorter trials, and a fairly wide range of drugs could get additional approvals for new uses based on relatively low amounts of evidence, such as data summaries and data from company registries.
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Mylan eyes up to 3,500 layoffs in post-M&A cost-cutting drive
The company's moves to "reduce redundancy" will impact "less than 10%" of its global workforce, according to a spokesperson. At of the end of 2015, Mylan
employed nearly 35,000 people around the world, meaning the new cuts could affect roughly 3,500 people at the high end.
In an SEC
filing
, Mylan said it's "developing the details" of the cutbacks and will share more information about cost savings and restructuring costs as the moves are finalized.
Mylan has had a tough year already. Its CEO was hauled up in front of a Congressional committee to defend EpiPen price hikes that triggered a public firestorm, and it agreed to fork over $465 million to the Justice Department to make up for years of underpaid Medicaid rebates on the product. The post-M&A job cuts, typically seen as bad news by employees and the public, but good news for investors, might set off another round of negative publicity, Wells Fargo analyst David Maris said in a Wednesday note.
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Below are summaries and charts with the past week's transactions from the different healthcare sectors. For a detailed table showing data for each industry transaction click on any of the charts or use the download link above. Total transaction values are provided in USD millions.
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Pharma & Biotech
16 transactions totaling $388
million
Supplies, Equipment & Services
13 transactions totaling $490 million
Healthcare IT & Managed Care
3 transactions totaling $- million
Healthcare Facilities & Distributors
15 transactions totaling $222 million
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Pharma & Biotech
18 private placements totaling $279 million
Supplies, Equipment & Services
9 private placements totaling $210 million
Healthcare IT & Managed Care
5 private placements totaling $72 million
Healthcare Facilities & Distributors
1 private placement totaling $6 million
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Pharma & Biotech
11 public offerings totaling $716 million
Supplies, Equipment & Services
5 public offerings totaling $1,103 million
Healthcare IT & Managed Care
0 public offering
Healthcare Facilities & Distributors
1 public offering totaling $73 million
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 Each week, w
e provide updated trading
comps for leading comp
anies from numerous healthcare subsectors.
To the right you will see a high-level breakdown of median revenue and EBITDA multiples for each of the specific subsectors
For a complete trading comp analysis (including the individual equities that comprise the subsectors), click on the table to the right or use the download link from the top of this newsletter.
Note: data reflects prior week close.
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RECENT INDUSTRY HEADLINES
A Sampling of Relevant Industry Headlines from the Last Week
Below are snippets from relevant industry news articles from the past week presented in chronological order. For additional information or the article's complete text, click the headline link to view the original publication.
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December 7, 2016 -
Fierce Pharma
Any drugmakers still thinking they got off easy when Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election may want to think again.
"I'm going to bring down drug prices," the president-elect
told
Time Magazine in an interview that published Wednesday. "I don't like what has happened with drug prices."
The way he sees it, analysts and investors may have misunderstood his intentions, which are, he says, to follow through with pledges he made on the campaign trail. He's
shown support
in the past for letting Medicare negotiate drug prices-and while he never went as far as his opponent, Hillary Clinton, in
attacking the industry
, the Medicare stance is a pharma-unfriendly measure that crosses his party lines.
Still, biopharma stocks-which had been depressed since Clinton's initial promise to go after industry players-soared 9% the day after Trump's election. Now, though, investors may be hearing Trump better; they sent industry shares south again Wednesday in response to his comments.
December 5, 2016 -
BioSpace
Summit, NJ-based
Celgene
(
CELG
)
announced
Friday that it will be acquiring Boston-based
Acetylon Pharmaceuticals
. In a complicated switch, before the deal is closed, Acetylon plans to spin off some of its pipeline into a new company,
Regenacy Pharmaceuticals
.
In addition to the overall company, Celgene will acquire worldwide rights to Acetylon's selective HDAC6 inhibitor programs, as well intellectual property related to oncology, neurodegeneration, and autoimmune disease.
In addition, it will have Acetylon's preclinical selective HDAC1,2 inhibitor candidates and a group of patents to develop in all human disease indications, including sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia.
Regenacy will be located in Acetylon's former headquarters in Boston's Seaport District. A group of Acetylon's executive team will join Regenacy. The new company will be owned by Acetylon shareholders, excluding Celgene.
December 9, 2016 - Fierce Biotech
After dissecting its failed solanezumab failure at the CTAD meeting last night, Lilly is wasting no time moving on as it announces a new Alzheimer's drug pact deal with partner AstraZeneca this morning.
Under the
deal, Lilly will pay $30 million upfront to AZ to work on the amyloid drug together, known as MEDI1814, which is currently in
phase 1 trials as "a potential disease-modifying treatment for Alzheimer's disease," the two Big Pharmas said in a statement.
The drug was originally developed through AZ's biologics arm MedImmune.
The pair are already working on another Alzheimer's med, AZD3293, a
BACE inhibitor
that is further down the pathway in two pivotal phase 3 tests.
The new drug binds selectively to amyloid beta 42 (Aβ42), a form of amyloid beta that is believed to cause sticky plaques to build up in the brain.
December 6, 2016 -
BioSpace
Only about four months after leaving Google Ventures, now GV, co-founder and chief executive officer Bill Maris is reportedly well on his way to
raising
$230 million for a new health care venture fund.
In September, it was
rumored
that Maris was trying to raise between $350 million and $500 million to develop a healthcare-related venture capital fund. He had left GV after
Google
(
GOOG
) reorganized its companies under the
Alphabet
umbrella.
Maris founded Google Venture in 2009 and had some very
successful investments
, including
Uber
,
Net Labs
and
Jet.com
. As of February 2016, it had $2.4 billion in managed assets and over 300 investments. With numerous successes to its credit, it also missed a few big ones, choosing to pass on
Airbnb
and
SnapChat
. On the other hand, it chose to pass on
Theranos
.
"We looked at it a couple times, but there was so much hand-waving-like,
Look over here!
-that we couldn't figure it out," Maris told Business Insider in October 2015. "So, we just had someone from our life-science investment team go into
Walgreens
and take the test. And it wasn't that difficult for anyone to determine that things may not be what they seem here."
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As an international, healthcare-focused merchant bank and financial advisory firm, we provide world-class services and capital to middle-market healthcare companies around the globe. We aim to keep our clients well-informed of healthcare news and events. With this additional insight in mind, together, we can recognize trends and opportunities that benefit our clients. We hope that you will reach out to Bourne Partners to help execute your healthcare operational and transactional needs. To learn more about our firm, visit our website or utilize the links below to engage with us on social media.
Sincerely,
The Bourne Partners Team
Bourne Partners
550 South Caldwell Street
Suite 900
Charlotte, NC 28202
704-552-8407
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