J&J's bid for vaccine maker Crucell capped a busy week for life sciences deal-making. Chelsea Therapeutics shares soared on positive trial data on its experimental Parkinson's drug, but an FDA panel's rejection of Arena Pharmaceutical's weight-loss drug hammered its shares.
Recent early-stage deals between drug companies and biotech firms underscore pharma's increasing reliance on biotech as a source of innovation. Biotech stocks benefited from the flurry of deal making.
Genzyme's board blasted a $69-per-share offer from France's Sanofi as "unrealistic" and "opportunistic," while biotech stocks rallied in line with the rest of Wall Street on upbeat economic data.
While the rest of Europe was on holiday, Roche was busy in the office, acquiring California diagnostics startup BioImagene for $100 million, and striking a discovery and development deal with Aileron Therapeutics that could be worth upwards of $1 billion.
Aspen Pharmacare's acquisition of the drug-making assets of Sigma Pharmaceuticals lead a busy week of deals worth up to $4.5 billion, but shares of major biotech companies were hit hard by FDA news.
The acquisition of two small companies highlighted a quiet deal-making week in the life sciences industry, while big, blue chip biotech stocks took a beating in a bruising week on Wall Street.
Life sciences stocks rocketed to stellar gains in the first three months of the year, only to crash back to earth in the second quarter. Here's a rundown of the first-half's winners and losers, and a look ahead to the third quarter.
