RE:Big pharma is set to keep signing bigger deals in 2024 What makes a life sciences company appealing for an acquisition or merger?
“In pharma, it's simple. Does it compliment their pipeline or fill a gap at the end of the day?” said Gadi Saarony, CEO of Advarra, however, each company's decision is seen through a different lens, depending on their goals and business models.
“Acquiring companies are often looking for near-term growth drivers, which means late-stage pipeline drugs are in high demand,” adds Daniel Chancellor, Director of Thought Leadership for Evaluate (a Norstella company) [as would be the situation with ONCY as a late-stage stage company with near term drivers.
“For earlier-stage drugs, the conversation is often about licensing and partnering, which allows both sides to mitigate the risks associated with R&D.”
Beyond determining the actual acquisition and whether it is a good fit, companies must be prepared for the integration of the two entities.
“Day one, all the back-office systems get integrated,” asserted Saarony. Beyond the system integration, the companies switch to the new policies and procedures of the parent company. It takes time to dissolve the old protocols and bring in the new ones, but that is paramount before considering product synergies, as ONCY has been doing with its product manufacturing advancements with the recent validation of asceptic, pre-filled, single use syringes contining measured does of injectable pelareorep, for example.
Beyond providing insight into the M&A landscape, the experts also provided predictions for the industry in the coming years. “Wider macro environment suggests that M&A levels should continue to pick up,” predicted Chancellor.
“It's an exciting time, and we're bullish on 2024. Look out for a lot of activity that we can't even probably predict right now,”