Theratechnologies Inc T.TH

Oncology news

[qwerty22]

Some points in here worth our consideration even though it's a different approach to oncology.

Bris­tol My­ers jumps in­to the M&A game with a $4B on­col­o­gy buy­out. And weary biotech an­a­lysts could­n't be any hap­pi­er

by John Carroll

Bris­tol My­ers Squibb has nabbed Turn­ing Point Ther­a­peu­tics in a $4.1 bil­lion buy­out deal, just weeks af­ter the biotech post­ed an up­beat round of pos­i­tive hu­man da­ta for its lead drug, re­potrec­tinib.

The buy­out — at $76 a share — gives Bris­tol My­ers a ri­val to Pfiz­er’s Xalko­ri and Roche’s Ro­z­lytrek in ROS1-pos­i­tive non-small cell lung can­cer.

The share price for Turn­ing Point TP­TX more than dou­bled on the news Fri­day morn­ing. But the stock had sunk by a third since the start of the year, set­ting the stage for a buy­out.

Com­ing right on the heels of a $3.3 bil­lion GSK ac­qui­si­tion as well as Pfiz­er’s $11.6 bil­lion Bio­haven buy­out, the deal of­fers a clear sig­nal that af­ter a long, qui­et stretch on the M&A front, Big Phar­ma is ready to spend some of its sub­stan­tial cash re­serves af­ter watch­ing the pub­lic biotech sec­tor get pum­meled in H1. It’s al­so a sign that buy­ers are per­fect­ly hap­py to wait for con­vinc­ing hu­man da­ta to de-risk their deals, par­tic­u­lar­ly bolt-on buy­outs like this.

As Lei Lei Wu re­port­ed in April, an­a­lysts were a tad dis­ap­point­ed that the lat­est ORR for re­potrec­tinib fell just shy of 80%, but that still puts Bris­tol My­ers on track to po­ten­tial­ly score a best-in-class win, com­par­ing fa­vor­ably to the 66% score for Xalko­ri and 74% on Ro­z­lytrek