DOTW Keeps Tabs As Tax Trimming Fuels Deals

As an industry, biopharma actually fares pretty well when it comes to taxes. Among profitable companies, biotech and pharma have some of the lowest effective U.S. tax rates compared to companies in other sectors. But that doesn’t mean they have stopped working to push their tax rates even lower.

Along with a recent ramp-up of the usual strategies, such as buying companies or assets based in low-tax locales or moving intellectual property there, the industry also is starting to take advantage of the newest twist on tax inversions – in which two companies in high tax locales, only one of them the U.S., merge and create a new company based in a low-tax country.

The specialty pharma consolidation frenzy is driven in part by tax benefits derived from buying companies in lower tax jurisdictions like Ireland. The spec pharma with the lowest tax rate wins – or at the very least earns the right to leverage all that cash on their books to gobble up higher tax rate competitors, thereby making higher margins on the same products.

Valeant is the obvious winner on this front; it will have an astonishing 2% tax rate in 2014, according to data from RBC Capital. But most recently, taxes were also a factor in the Actavis purchase of Forest Laboratories Inc. Actavis had already lowered its tax rate with the acquisition of Irish-headquartered company Warner Chilcott that completed last fall. Now Actavis can apply that reduced tax rate to a product portfolio that will encompass Forest. Prior to the deal announcement, RBC expected Forest would have a 24% effective tax rate in 2014 and that Actavis’ would be 17%.

And, of course, Perrigo is also a newly Irish company, with its purchase last year of the floundering Elan. But there aren’t a lot of direct routes left to Ireland. The largest independent, public Irish therapeutics company is drug delivery company Alkermes; it’s only one of six remaining that also include another drug delivery play Merrion Pharmaceuticals as well as antibody company Prothena, according to the Strategic Transactions database.

(In Ireland, all roads lead back to Elan. Alkermes garnered its Irish locale after a 2011 merger with the drug delivery unit of Elan, while Prothena is the 2012 spin-out of Elan’s drug discovery business. Merrion is also based on IP purchased from Elan.)

Most biopharmas count themselves lucky to have an effective tax rate in the teens – or even the low 20s. The big biotechs with the highest anticipated 2014 effective tax rates are Biogen Idec Inc. at 27% and Gilead Sciences Inc. at 25%, according to RBC. Between them they’ve had two of the most successful launches in recent years for Biogen’s Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate) and Gilead’s Sovaldi (sofosbuvir).

Intellectual property for each of these products is domiciled in Ireland in an effort to curb tax expenditures. But that’s a long-term solution that could take years to work. Biogen had a 28.8% non-GAAP tax rate in the fourth quarter. Due to a larger percentage of its profits coming from the U.S. with the Tecfidera launch, the biotech expects the rate to remain at this level through 2014 but for it to subsequently decline in the following two years.

Alexion beefed up its Irish and Singapore operations last year and in January bought an Irish vialing facility for its Soliris (eculizumab). These efforts resulted in tax benefits that are expected to give it a 2014 non-GAAP tax rate of 11% to 12% (GAAP tax rate of 20% to 25%). That’s down from a whopping 51.9% effective tax rate in 2013, which translated into an income tax provision of $273 million. Alexion’s non-GAAP rate is expected to rise to 13% to 14% in 2015 and 16% to 18% in 2016 and beyond, since some benefits are only short-term tax credits.

The most creative tax tactic in the sector is the recent Endo-Paladin deal. The usual approach to tax inversion is for a U.S. company to become the subsidiary of a foreign company. The latest twist on this long-standing move, the third deal of its kind according to RBC, is exemplified by the Endo-Paladin merger, in which a U.S. and Canadian company are merging to form a new entity – in this case, an Irish company.

One risk of being overly imaginative with corporate tax strategy is always bad publicity, as it can trigger allegations of being a ‘tax avoider’ or, even worse, attract the tender attentions of the IRS. Those issues make it difficult for the big multinationals to be very aggressive on the tax front, although becoming enormous hasn't slowed Valeant’s efforts on this front.

The highest corporate income tax rate in the United States is around 40%, including federal, state and local taxes. But at $242 billion in 2012, corporate income taxes are a small percentage of U.S. federal receipts compared to the $1.1 trillion in individual income taxes and $845 billion in social insurance taxes during that year, according to a recent Government Accounting Office report. Since the 1980s, corporate taxes have ranged from roughly 6% to 15% of federal revenue.

Ireland isn’t the only useful tax locality – the top four are the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland, according to RBC. These countries had a 2013 corporate tax rate of 23%, 12.5%, 25%, and 18%, respectively, according to data from KPMG.

Ernst & Young’s Mitchell Cohen, the life sciences global tax leader at Ernst & Young, also includes Belgium (35%, with substantial patent and R&D related deductions and credits), Singapore (17%) and Puerto Rico (20% to 30%) among the ranks of countries with a significant life sciences presence that provide tax benefits.

Among profitable companies overall, the average effective tax rate is 26.6%, according to a current dataset from Aswath Damodaran, a professor of finance at the Stern School of Business at New York University. The profitable pharma companies in his dataset had a 22% average effective tax rate, while the money-making biotechs were at an average of 17.4% That puts both groups in the bottom one-third of corporate tax paying sectors.

And while DOTW can't promise that you'll personally enjoy an effective tax rate of 2% this season, we do want to send you off with this week's deal news. Please read on to discuva the latest, including a pair of preclinical deals and another two that were called off in this week's edition of. . . .

Celgene/Abide: Celgene likes to keep all its options open – to acquire companies, to acquire programs and to license programs. In its latest R&D deal with the preclinical Abide Therapeutics, disclosed on Feb. 28, it included an option to purchase its biotech partner as well as an option to license the rest-of-the-world rights on the first two programs to reach the clinic. Abide’s most advanced compound, AB101131, is expected to enter the clinic in 2015. The biotech expects to get three or four additional candidates into the clinic under the collaboration.  Its technology selectively targets serine hydrolases to develop new treatments for inflammation and immunological disorders. Founded in 2011, Abide was seeded by venture firm Cardinal Partners. Celgene and Cardinal Partners both participated in an undisclosed equity financing concurrent with the deal. Other terms of the deal, including the upfront, also remain undisclosed. Abide is headed by Alan Ezekowitz, an entrepreneur-in-residence at Cardinal Partners who became the biotech’s president, CEO and co-founder. Prior to that, he was at Merck Research Laboratories, the research division of Merck & Co. Inc., as SVP and franchise head of bone, respiratory, immunology and endocrine. Abide’s platform is based on work by Professors Ben Cravatt and Dale Boger of the Scripps Research Institute. The biotech secured its first big biopharma deal last May; it partnered with Ezekowitz’ former employer, Merck. In that deal, it garnered an undisclosed upfront and milestones of up to $430 million to discover, develop and commercialize small molecules against three novel targets to treat metabolic diseases with a focus on type II diabetes. In the last few years, Celgene has done at least three prior deals that included an option to purchase the company: an October 2013 deal with cancer and fibrotic disease company PharmAkea Therapeutics, a July 2013 partnership with toll-like receptor agonist developer VentiRx Pharmaceuticals, and an October 2012 deal with selective small molecule histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor developer Acetylon Pharmaceuticals. - Stacy Lawrence

Roche/ Discuva: Roche and U.K. biotech Discuva are collaborating on the discovery and development of new antibiotics to treat multi-drug resistant gram-negative infections using Discuva’s Selective Antibiotic Target Identification technology platform. SATI uses next-generation sequencing and bioinformatics to identify bacterial targets and select from among them promising drug development candidates. The deal, announced on Feb. 28, fits well with Roche’s revamped research strategy in infectious diseases, a field its R&D organization exited more than 20 years ago, but recently has re-entered. The new, narrower focus is on multi-drug resistant, pathogen-specific, hospital-directed therapies, rather than broad spectrum antibiotics that were Roche’s original focus. Companion diagnostics, an area of strength due to Roche’s long experience in molecular diagnostics, will be important in identifying pathogens. In an October 2013 meeting in New York, Roche’s head of research and early-stage development John Reed outlined his organization’s priorities, noting that the antibiotics field is attractive now in part because “the animal models are good in the clinical context” and the regulatory path is clearer, particularly for safety requirements, thanks to recent FDA guidance.” Discuva will receive an upfront payment of $16 million, as well as research fees and payments on multiple programs of up to $175 million per product upon achievement of certain development, commercial and sales milestones. It will also receive potentially double-digit royalties on product sales. Discuva uses proprietary methods built from recent genomic discoveries to identify targets that affect bacterial growth and viability, as well as related genes potentially associated with development of downstream resistance. The problem of multi-drug resistance to gram-negative infections is growing but has not received as much attention as gram-positive infections. Gram negative pathogens addressed by Discuva include Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Acinetobacter baumannii, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. The company was founded in early 2012, with backing from New Wave Ventures. New Wave’s co-founder Tim Bullock is chairman of Discuva’s board; the amount his firm contributed to the start-up is not public. David Williams is an entrepreneur who founded Sareum, a U.K. oncology biotech that went public on AIM, and previously worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Acambis, and Medivir. - Wendy Diller

Merck/Ariad: The fate of Ariad Pharmaceuticals’ mTOR inhibitor ridaforolimus is uncertain now that pharma partner Merck & Co. has decided to return rights to the cancer drug. Ariad revealed in its year-end financial release Feb. 25 that Merck is terminating a licensing agreement for the development and commercialization of ridaforolimus effective in November. The move creates “a new clinical and business opportunity for Ariad,” the company said in a statement, but management didn’t even mention ridaforolimus during a same-day conference call. Ariad is focused on the re-launch of Iclusig (ponatinib), which re-entered the U.S. market in January for the treatment of leukemia after sales were temporarily halted last year due to safety concerns. The company is also running clinical trials to meet FDA’s post-marketing commitments for Iclusig and to expand its label to new indications. Merck’s decision to end the agreement shouldn’t surprise investors, especially now that the big pharma’s oncology focus has shifted to its PD-1 immunotherapy program. Ridaforolimus was rejected by FDA in 2012 as a maintenance treatment for sarcoma after it failed to demonstrate a benefit on survival in a Phase III trial and only a limited two-week progression-free survival advantage. Under the original 2007 collaboration between the two companies, Merck paid $75 million upfront for development and commercialization rights to ridaforolimus and agreed to pay up to $452 million in development milestones and $200 million in R&D payments; the deal was revised in 2010 to give Merck global rights rather than a U.S. profit split. Merck paid out some $222.5 million in upfront and milestone payments during the life of the deal, according to the Strategic Transactions database. - Jessica Merrill

Teva/Andromeda: In a case of a “No-Deal” possibly leading to another deal – Andromeda Biotech reacquired rights to type 1 diabetes candidate DiaPep277, along with equity, from fellow Israeli company Teva. To undo the firms’ 2007 partnership around the human heat shock protein 60 (Hsp-60)-derived peptide, Andromeda will pay Teva total consideration of approximately $72 million in future installments based upon revenues or proceeds payable to its shareholders.That unraveling of a deal on Feb. 24 was followed by media reports Feb. 26 that Clal Biotechnology, another Israeli company which owns 96% of Andromeda, was working on selling Andromeda and the DiaPep277 program to an undisclosed U.S. biopharma for a price that might number in the hundreds of millions of dollars. At press time, however, a second transaction could not be confirmed. Andromeda said it will continue a 475-patient confirmatory Phase III trial for the candidate. The 24-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial is being conducted at more than 100 locations in North America, Europe, Israel and Argentina. Patient recruitment was completed in September 2012 and the trial is expected to produce data by the end of this year. The trial is studying DiaPep277’s ability to preserve the patient’s insulin secretion by the pancreas, with a primary endpoint of maintenance of glycemic control. - Joseph Haas

Thanks to 401(K) 2013 from Flickr for the use of the image, which we find both alarming and strangely beautiful.

2013 M&A Of The Year Nominee: Biogen Idec/Elan's Tysabri Royalties

It's time for the IN VIVO Blog's Sixth Annual Deal of the Year! competition. This year we're once again presenting awards in three categories to highlight the most interesting and creative deal making solutions of the year. The categories are: M&A of the Year, Alliance of the Year, and Financing of the Year. We'll supply the nominations (about a half dozen in each category throughout over the next week or so) and you, the voting public, will decide the winners (by voting early and often, commencing once we've announced all the nominees). Strap yourselves in, it's The Race for the Roger™.

Elan’s move to sell its share of the Tysabri (natalizumab) royalty to long-time partner Biogen Idec was the ball that set the Rube Goldberg device in motion, precipitating its endgame and landing it on the 2013 shortlist for M&A deal of the year. Ultimately, this sale gave Elan the thing it needed to become appealing to virtually any acquirer – lots of cash.

The sanity of Elan management has come into question on a number of occasions over the last year; industry, analysts, shareholders and media all wondered at some point what Elan CEO Kelly Martin could possibly be thinking when he began selling off the company’s most valuable assets and starting inking deals for royalty streams. What didn’t become entirely apparent until the former spec pharma darling was bought out by Perrigo for $8.6 billion in late-July was that Martin was (on purpose, probably) turning Elan into a shell company with lots of cash and an incredibly desirable tax rate.

Elan’s transformation into the pile of cash in Ireland that Perrigo eventually bought was driven by the previous year's clinical failure. In 2012, its highly-anticipated Alzheimer’s drug bapineuzumab failed spectacularly in Phase III – showing no signs of efficacy over placebo. After the bombshell, Elan had little in any of its other programs that would make it worthwhile to an acquirer; reimagining the company would be the only way to return value to shareholders. (Had that drug succeeded, perhaps we'd be writing about another deal -- the acquisition of the company by one of its Big Pharma partners, Pfizer or -- 2009 DOTY nominee --  Johnson & Johnson?)

So Martin set out to make Elan worth something to anyone by selling off its tangible assets for lots of cash. The company quickly divested its 25% stake in Alkermes for $550 million and spun-out its drug discovery unit into an independent biotech, dubbed Prothena. But it was the Tysabri deal with Biogen that really gave Elan its flexibility.

In early-February, Elan announced that it was selling the majority piece of its 50% stake in the blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug, which brought in $1.6 billion in 2012 and is expected by the companies to grow by 15% in 2013. Biogen agreed to pay Elan $3.25 billion upfront, as well as royalties on all future sales of Tysabri – effectively ending the decade-long partnership.

The Irish company (now Perrigo) will receive 12% of sales for the first year; then, its royalty rate jumps to 18% on all sales under $2 billion and 25% on sales over $2 billion. Royalties will continue for the life of the product and will include all indications – the drug is currently approved in relapsing/remitting MS, but it is also being studied in secondary-progressive MS, and Biogen has indicated it may look into the drug as a treatment for stroke. The SPMS trial is expected to report out in 2015.

Some people questioned the wisdom of selling off the bulk of the Tysabri royalty, but for Elan to reach its goal of getting acquired it made the most sense. While the Tysabri royalty is lucrative, the 50% ownership of the drug meant that Elan played a major part in how the lifecycle of the drug was managed; this could be particularly unappealing to any company that doesn’t have a stake in the MS space, therefore limiting the number of companies that would be interested in acquiring Elan. Once Tysabri became simply a big chunk of cash and potential for more cash in the future with no strings attached, it became appealing to any company, whether they were a player in the MS market or not.

For Biogen, this deal was a no-brainer – the company has long been hoping to be the majority owner of one of its best-selling products. Tysabri fits right into the biotech’s sweet spot; it also owns the MS drugs Avonex (interferon beta-1a) and Tecfidera (dimethyl fumerate), which all together represent about 40% of the total MS market.

What If Deals Of The Week Had A Party And Nobody Showed Up?

What if they had a week and no biopharma deals happened? We’re not quite at that point but it has been slow-going, to put it mildly, on the deal-watching front.

Did everybody go on vacation all at once? Well, your trusty correspondent got back from his time off about two weeks ago and Deals of the Week has a schedule to keep. Let’s see what activity we can find.

There have been a few deals the week of Aug. 19, although none of the blockbuster sort or even all that close (see below). In fact, deal rumors may have outnumbered actual signed deals this week – they certainly set more tongues wagging. The biggest news in business development and M&A likely was renewed speculation that rare disease specialist Shire might be a buyout target for big pharma. The rumor gained in plausibility coming on the heels of Perrigo’s $8.6 billion acquisition of Elan on July 29 for the primary purpose of benefiting from Irish tax laws.

Focused on over-the-counter products, nutritionals and generic drugs, Perrigo bought out Elan largely for its appealing tax structure, as well as the royalties it earns from multiple sclerosis blockbuster Tysabri (natalizumab). Because Perrigo is merging with Dublin-based Elan, rather than just moving to Ireland, the new combined company will be able to take advantage of that country’s tax rates, which are considerably lower than those in the U.S.

On Aug. 15, Perrigo held its first earnings call since the transaction, saying that its expectations for increased global business are expected to offset slowing U.S. revenues in its OTC business. The company reported overall record net income of $967 million for its fourth quarter, a 16% increase from the year-ago period, and income of $3.5 billion for its fiscal 2013, which ended on June 30, a 12% increase from 2012.

While sales for its consumer health care business, which includes OTC drugs and pet-care products, grew 16% to $562.4 million for the quarter, Perrigo executives said during the call that sales in some OTC categories are slowing, a trend that likely will continue. Perrigo’s nutritionals sales, comprising supplements and infant formula, reached $150 million, an 11% increase year-over-year, with all categories within the segment growing and new product sales reaching $7 million.

It’s unclear whether Bristol-Myers Squibb, said to be reprising its interest in acquiring Shire, would be looking for tax advantages – Shire is headquartered in Ireland, as well, but also maintains corporate offices in Philadelphia and Cambridge, Mass.

Industry analysts on Wall Street and in London have said the pharma’s main interest might be Shire’s business model of producing and selling high-priced drugs for small specialist populations that discourage generic competition because they are hard to make and extremely targeted. However, if Bristol bought Shire, Irish tax rates would apply to any existing Shire products sold by Bristol and it likely could use the Irish rate on future products of its own, resulting in a reduced, blended tax rate for its overall business.

Shire has pursued an interesting business development strategy, using small to mid-sized acquisitions, particularly of companies with late-stage or commercial assets, to transform itself. The centerpiece of this strategy was the 2005 buyout of Transkaryotic Therapies that led to the establishment of its growing Human Genetic Therapies division and became a primary competitor to Sanofi’s rare-disease subsidiary Genzyme.

In an effort to build a franchise around bio-engineered skin-substitute product Dermagraft, Shire bought out Advanced BioHealing for $750 million in 2011, but to date that deal has not succeeded greatly in growing the Regenerative Medicines unit. On July 25, Shire announced that sales of Dermagraft, the primary motive for the acquisition, declined 57% to just $22 million during the second quarter.

Overall, however, the company reported sales growth of 7% during the quarter and said it was on track for double-digit full-year sales growth as it had projected.

Recently, it was reported that Shire has hired Lazard as a financial investor to assist it if a hostile takeover bid emerges. Bristol reportedly was going to offer nearly $17 billion to purchase Shire this past May. Shire’s share price has been trending up lately, nosing over the $100 mark on July 11 and continuing to incline. The stock closed trading Aug. 21 at $114.02, undoubtedly helped by the new rumors of possible takeout interest.

While DOTW waits for that potential story to percolate, we point you to these actual transactions that occurred over the past week:

Shire/Santaris: Meanwhile, Shire transacted some actual business, announcing an extension Aug. 23 of its strategic alliance with Santaris Pharma to discover and develop RNA-targeted therapies for rare diseases. Specific financial terms were not disclosed. Under the original deal, signed in 2009, Santaris has been using its proprietary Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA) platform to discover and begin development of preclinical oligonucleotides against rare genetic disorder targets selected by Shire. Shire paid $6.5 million upfront for access to the technology along with research funding and $13.5 million for completion of early studies in the original deal, which specified five targets. Santaris also was eligible for up to $72 million in milestones for each program, plus sales royalties on any product reaching the market. The revised deal adds an undisclosed number of additional targets to the collaboration. Santaris gets upfront cash and research funding, and again can earn milestones and royalties if a product derived from the target research gets to market. As with the initial agreement, Shire holds worldwide development and commercialization rights to any resulting compounds.

Adimab/Celgene/Innovent: Less than a month after antibody-engineering firm Adimab signed a pair of non-exclusive R&D partnerships with GlaxoSmithKline and Biogen Idec, the New Hampshire biotech struck again, announcing a pair of deals Aug. 20. This time, Adimab has signed discovery partnerships with Celgene and Innovent, again to generate therapeutic antibody candidates against multiple targets. The July deals brought Adimab’s total to 19 partners, including a “who’s who” of big pharma and big biotech, and the company said it expects to sign at least three tech-transfer deals a year through 2015. However, the deals with GSK and Biogen transferred non-exclusive rights to Adimab’s antibody discovery and protein-engineering platform, giving them expanded use of the technology beyond prior tie-ups with the biotech. In the Celgene agreement, Adimab will use the platform to generate antibodies against multiple, undisclosed therapeutic targets. Adimab receives an undisclosed upfront payment, while Celgene will have the option to develop and commercialize all antibody candidates resulting from the collaboration. For any candidate that Celgene options, Adimab will receive a licensing fee and be eligible for clinical milestones and royalties on product sales. Meanwhile, Adimab and China-based Innovent will partner on a single program to discover, develop and commercialize an antibody-based therapeutic against an undisclosed target. Innovent will coordinate all initial product development, including manufacturing and clinical trials. Each company will retain the right to develop and commercialize any resulting drug candidate in its respective geographic territories. Innovent will hold those rights in China, while Adimab retains U.S., European and Japanese rights to the program. Innovent will compensate Adimab for discovery and optimization of therapeutic leads, while Adimab will reimburse Innovent for specific development costs.

Evotec/Jain Foundation: Germany’s Evotec AG, a drug-discovery alliance and development partnership company, and the Jain Foundation announced Aug. 21 that they have extended and expanded their research collaboration in skeletal muscular dystrophy diseases. No financial details were disclosed. Based in Bellevue, Wash., Jain is a privately funded foundation whose goal is to cure muscular dystrophies caused by deficiency of dysferlin protein. In a release, foundation CEO Plavi Mittal said the collaboration is moving toward the screening of compound libraries with Evotec. “This is an important step toward accomplishing our mission of finding a therapy for Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2b/Miyoshi Myopathy,” he said. Earlier this year, Evotec partnered with Harvard University to identify and develop a new class of small-molecule inhibitors of bacterial cell wall synthesis. Evotec is applying its drug-discovery technologies and expertise toward developing anti-bacterial agents that target peptidoglycan biosynthesis, while the university brings assays, anti-bacterial chemical starting points and x-ray crystallography tools to the collaboration.

Mount Sinai Medical Center/Exosome Diagnostics: Mount Sinai Medical Center (NY)’s Icahn School of Medicine is collaborating with Exosome Diagnostics Inc. on research and development of real-time nucleic acid-based body-fluid diagnostics to advance personalized medicine in areas such as oncology and inflammation. From the work, Exosome anticipates pursuing commercial development of potential in vitro diagnostics. Under the five-year collaboration, Mount Sinai researchers will get early access to Exosome technology for use in targeted molecular research, the two New York-based organizations said Aug. 21. The Exosome technology enables real-time capture of genetic biomarkers that are responsible for disease directly from blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid without need for a tissue biopsy. The medical center will retain rights to molecular biomarkers associated with disease progression and drug response under the agreement, while Exosome will get commercial development rights to any molecular in vitro diagnostic products that may result from the collaboration.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Deals Of The Week Ponders When $2.1 Billion Is A Steal

With the oncology high season upon us and just about everyone in the industry scrambling to decode the secrets hidden in ASCO’s abstracts, we couldn’t help but stop and reflect on how at least one company got where it is in oncology today through stellar deal-making. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Medarex in 2009, which seemed to some like a fortune at the time, catapulted Bristol into the leading position in the field of immune-oncology, an area of cancer drug development that some analysts are now calling a potential $10 billion to $20 billion market.

When the two companies, already partners, announced the acquisition in July 2009, “The Pink Sheet” called the offer “a coup for the biotech,” which got nearly double its stock price from Bristol. Fast forward four years later and it is Bristol that made out like a bandit.

There is still a lot to learn about how the immune system can be used to fight cancer, but it is increasingly evident that the immune system can indeed be directed to turn against tumors, potentially resulting in long, durable responses. Thanks to Medarex, Bristol has become one of the experts at the forefront of the research. Yervoy (ipilimumab), the immunotherapeutic targeting CTLA4 Bristol developed with Medarex, is already on the market for metastatic melanoma and could achieve blockbuster level sales this year. A second drug, nivolumab, which targets a different immune checkpoint, PD-1, has already moved into pivotal trials.

In about one week at ASCO, Bristol will release data on Yervoy and nivolumab used in combination, where the potential of immunotherapeutics is believed to be greatest. And those are just two of the immunotherapeutics Bristol has in development. The company is studying multiple immune system targets in earlier trials, some gained through Medarex and some gained through other deals. For example, the company gained a KIR receptor blocker through a licensing deal with Innate Pharma SA in 2011, and a monoclonal antibody against another target, CD-137, was developed internally. Bristol believes these drugs will ultimately be used together in different combinations to turn cancer into a potentially chronic disease.

It’s never easy to quantify the value of an acquisition years after a portfolio is integrated into big pharma, but it is safe to say Medarex turned out to be a smart buy. Investors and analysts have certainly taken note. Citi Research managing director for global pharmaceuticals Andrew Baum upgraded the company May 22 and raised the stock’s price target to $55 from $33 on the strength of the immunotherapeutics portfolio, which he said “will likely exceed $10 billion [in sales] by 2022.”

The company’s stock is up more than 11% since May 15, when the ASCO abstracts were released and Bristol’s data was highlighted in a press preview; it closed May 23 at $47. How is Wall Street valuing Medarex in the share price? “It’s at least $10. Perhaps as much as $15,” speculated ISI Group analyst Mark Schoenebaum.

All that’s not to say Bristol didn’t pay handsomely to be in the position it’s in. The company’s then-CEO James Cornelius took a big gamble on immuno-oncology when he put $2.1 billion down on Medarex as part of his “string of pearls” acquisition strategy before the Phase III data on ipilimumab read out.

The deal was one of the most expensive in oncology in the last five years, trumped only by mega acquisitions like Roche’s $43.7 billion buyout out of Genentech Inc. and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s $8.2 billion buyout of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, both in 2008, and by a couple of mid-sized acquisitions including Astellas Pharma Inc.’s acquisition of OSI Pharmaceuticals Ltd. for $3 billion and Celgene Corp.’s purchase of Abraxis BioScience Inc. for $2.9 billion.

Also, weighing in as more expensive is Eli Lilly & Co.’s $6.5 billion acquisition of ImClone Systems Inc. in 2008; ironically, Bristol was outbid by Lilly that time. Months later, Bristol turned around and acquired Medarex instead, a decision it probably doesn’t regret. Even though Medarex was expensive, the value it has brought to Bristol appears to be clear cut. Even a great deal can cost a fortune after all. -- Jessica Merrill

Which one of the deals below will pay dividends?  Check back in a few years, but for now content yourself with the latest edition of ...

Pfizer/Zoetis: Pfizer said May 22 that it will shed its remaining 80% ownership of the Zoetis animal health business that it began spinning out via IPO in February. The timing was earlier than expected. Analysts had anticipated that Pfizer would wait at least 180 days before divesting the remaining portion of the company, partly to help Zoetis establish its footing and also due to a lock-out period by underwriters. Yet, that waiting period could be waived if Zoetis established itself as standalone company, and apparently it has. Pfizer’s former animal health business seems to be adjusting to independence well; Zoetis reported first quarter earnings per share on April 30 of $0.36 per share, up 20% from what the unit reported a year earlier and three cents ahead of analysts’ expectations. The Madison, NJ-based company brought in sales of $1.09 billion, up 4% from the year-prior period. News of the swap didn’t impair Zoetis’ market performance; shares added about 1.5% to $33.55 on the day of the announcement. The Zoetis IPO, which brought in $2.2 billion for Pfizer, was a success. The offer price was above the anticipated range of $22 to $25 per share; the company sold 86.1 million shares at $26 each on Jan. 31. The stock opened at $30.74 on Feb. 1 and was up 20% on the first day. Now, Pfizer shareholders will be given the option to exchange all, some or none of their shares of Pfizer stock for Class A shares of Zoetis stock, which will be issued at a 7% discount to market price, meaning $100 of Pfizer stock would be worth $107.52 of Zoetis shares, according to the company. Though this time Pfizer won’t see any cash, the tax free swap will reduce the Big Pharma’s share count and thus be accretive to earnings per share. – Lisa LaMotta

Elan/AOP Ophan/NewBridge/Speranza: In its continuing effort to spend its way to diversification, Elan Corp. PLC announced a trio of deals this week. It acquired profitable, Central and Eastern Europe-focused orphan disease company AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals; it invested in Middle Eastern specialty pharma NewBridge Pharmaceuticals; and it spun out its only clinical candidate into Speranza Therapeutics.
These deals come on the heels of its royalty deal with respiratory company Theravance and Elan’s struggle to remain independent. Also this week, Royalty Pharma increased its hostile bid to acquire Elan to $12.50 per share for the company, which it said is the equivalent of $4.6 billion for Elan’s remaining half of its royalties for multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri (natalizumab). That’s a 42% premium to the $3.25 billion for which Elan sold the other half of its Tysabri royalty to partner Biogen Idec Inc. in March. Elan shareholders previously rejected an $11.25 per share offer from Royalty Pharma earlier this year. Elan is acquiring AOP for €263.5 million ($339.8 million) in cash and stock, plus a potential €270 million in regulatory milestones. The Austrian company markets orphan disease products in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Elan also made a $40 million investment in specialty pharma NewBridge. Elan received a 48% equity stake and has the option to buy the remainder by 2015 for $244 million. Finally, Elan is divesting ELND005 (scyllo-inositol), which did not meet the primary endpoints in a Phase II trial to treat Alzheimer’s disease, into newco Speranza. Elan will invest $70 million for an 18% position in the company, plus royalties or commercial rights in undisclosed markets. A second undisclosed investor will invest $20 million for a 62% equity position, with the remaining 20% distributed among the management. Elan has committed to an additional potential $8 million, while the other investor may invest another $2 million. Elan CMO Menghis Bairu takes the reins at the new biotech as CEO. – Stacy Lawrence

Actavis/Warner Chilcott: Following more than a week of speculation, generics giant Actavis Group agreed to purchase specialty pharma Warner Chilcott PLC on May 20 in an all-stock transaction under which Warner shareholders will end up with a 23% interest in the combined company, to be called Actavis PLC. The deal gains Actavis a favorable tax environment in Ireland and puts to rest for now further talk of a potential Actavis/Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. merger. Valued at about $8.5 billion including the assumption of $3.4 billion in debt, the merger will require approval from 75% of Warner shareholders under Irish law and is likely to close in the fourth quarter, the two companies said. Warner shareholders will receive 0.16 shares in the new company for each full share they hold in Warner, equating to a valuation of $20.08 for each existing share. That’s a 34% premium over the stock’s closing price on May 9. Aside from its core generics business, Actavis PLC will have eight women’s health products including contraceptives, infertility treatments and hormone therapies; six urology drugs across indications such as overactive bladder, testosterone replacement, prostate cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia; two gastrointestinal drugs, both for ulcerative colitis; and one marketed dermatology product with a second slated for launch this July. It also would boast a pipeline of 25 compounds, 15 of which in the women’s health area. Actavis CEO Paul Bisaro said the merger would result in Actavis deriving about 25% of revenues from specialty branded product sales, compared with about 7% currently.– Joseph Haas

Novo/Xellia: Novo AS added the business-to-business generic anti-infectives manufacturer Xellia Pharmaceuticals AS to its portfolio of health care companies on May 21, building up a life sciences cluster in Denmark that may well be the envy of larger countries. Novo, a life sciences investor and the holding company for the Novo Group, is already the majority shareholder of three Denmark-based companies, Novo Nordisk AS, Novozymes AS and Chr. Hansen Holding AS, and said it was pleased to bring Xellia ownership back to Scandinavia. Xellia specializes in difficult-to-manufacture generic antibiotics and anti-infectives like vancomycin and colistimethate sodium, with fermentation technology not routinely available to bulk manufacturers of other antibiotics like penicillins and cephalosporins. Novo is owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and like the Wellcome Trust in the U.K., the foundation is a major supporter of academic research through grants and other funding. Novo paid the U.K. private equity company 3i and minority shareholders $700 million for Xellia, a company 3i and its management bought from U.S.-based Alpharma Inc. back in 2008. Alpharma was itself created through the merger of companies based in Norway, Denmark and the U.S. 3i made a 2.3 times return on its investment in Xellia, not bad during the past five years of slow economic growth. – John Davis

BTG/Ekos/Nordion: Britain's BTG PLC announced two planned acquisitions this week, one extending its abilities in liver cancer and the other an ultrasound treatment for dissolving severe blood clots, to create an interventional medicine business with potential sales of $1 billion. BTG agreed to pay $180 million in cash and up to $40 million in milestones for Seattle-based Ekos Corp., which will provide control of EkoSonic, a new technology approved in the U.S. and Europe for treating blood clots which is enjoying 29% annual compound growth rate over the past three years. The specialty pharmaceutical group also agreed to buy the targeted therapies division of Nordion Inc., for about $200 million in a deal that adds that company’s Therasphere radioactive glass beads treatment for liver cancer. BTG believes Therasphere will complement its existing chemotherapy beads unit and wants to expand the indications of use for that product and its geographic footprint beyond Europe and the U.S. to Asia, where the prevalence of Hepatitis B – a precursor for liver cancer – is very widespread compared with the West. For example, 5% of primary liver cancers occur in China. BTG thus sees a huge market opportunity there and aims to build on the chemo bead partnerships and regulatory track record it already has in China, Japan and South Korea for promoting Therasphere. Some of the cost of buying the Nordion unit will be met from a May 23 private placement that raised $160.7 million. BTG sold 32.2 million new shares, representing just below 10% of its share capital. -- Sten Stovall

GSK/BARDA: Biopharmaceutical business development executives are oft heard claiming that every deal is different – and so breathless PR claims of “first of its kind” and uniqueness usually tend to be simultaneously overheated and paradoxically unnecessary. But this week’s deal between GlaxoSmithKline PLC and the U.S. Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority might fit the bill. The collaboration is essentially a grant over which BARDA exercises an unusual amount of control and will focus on developing antibiotics against resistant bugs and potential bioterror agents. BARDA retains flexibility in which GSK projects it chooses to fund over the life of the deal; it will contribute $40 million over an initial 18 month period and up to $200 million if the deal gets renewed over five years. The only specific GSK asset cited in the award contract is GSK 2140944, an antibiotic against respiratory and skin and soft tissue infections currently in Phase I studies for conventional and biothreat applications. A joint BARDA-GSK committee will determine funding allocations and select or eliminate projects for the team’s portfolio. BARDA doesn’t receive any traditional ownership or return rights (no milestones or royalties to reward its risk taking). Nor will it acquire any rights to GSK’s pre-existing IP, according to a GSK spokesperson. For IP that comes out of the relationship, the spokesperson notes that “GSK may obtain title to any patents for inventions GSK makes as part of the contract, with BARDA reserving certain government rights to such inventions.” The deal underscores the need for new models to fund R&D in a space largely underfunded by traditional means thanks to scientific difficulties and poor return on investment. GSK isn’t alone in its pursuit of new antibiotics, but it’s an increasingly small club.--CM

Uneasy Lies The Head That Wears a Financings of the Fortnight Crown

Compared to other types of financing, royalty-based deals in the biopharma world are rare. That’s because a company needs products with future revenue to parlay into a near-term lump sum, and the relative few companies that have such products often don’t need the immediate cash or can get it other ways.

So when a royalty deal – or a debt deal using product royalties as collateral – crops up, we take notice. And they seem to be cropping up more often. Just our imaginations? Not according to Elsevier’s Strategic Transactions database, which offered up ten deals in 2012, the most in any of the past ten years. 2011 was a close second with 9 deals, and with three more this year, 22 of the 47 we found in the past ten years are of recent vintage. (These numbers reflect only the publicly disclosed deals; there are certainly more, as investors in this space often keep activities out of the spotlight.)

In dollar terms, the total since the start of 2003 is $5.7 billion. The last two years and change have seen $2.7 billion worth of deals, a proportion akin to the deal flow.

The richest deal in recent years is Royalty Pharma’s $761 million purchase of the earn-out rights from the shareholders of Fumapharm, the German firm that sold to Biogen Idec in 2006. The deal could end up extra sweet for Royalty, now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the main product in the Fumapharm dossier, the oral multiple sclerosis treatment BG-12, renamed Tecfidera.

Another near-blockbuster was Royalty’s $609 million purchase of DPP-IV rights from Astellas Pharma’s Prosidion division. A bit farther down the pay scale, but still significant, were Dendreon’s sale of Victrelis royalties to CPPIB Credit Investments for $125 million, and Nektar Therapeutics’ $124 million deal with an offshoot of Royalty Pharma for its royalties to Mircera and Cimzia, both of which were formulated with Nektar’s pegylation technology.

Now add one more to the list. This fortnight, weight-loss drug maker Vivus used royalties of its Qsymia, weighed down so far by slow sales, as collateral to borrow up to $110 million. (We describe the deal below in our roundup.) And of course, in what could be the ne plus ultra of all royalty deals, Royalty Pharma (who else?) is dangling $6.6 billion to buy Elan, which after its major divestments is basically a holding company for royalties from multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri. Elan has resisted so far, instead promising shareholders it will pay out a dividend based on the Tysabri stream. This week an Irish regulatory panel gave Royalty a May deadline to firm up its offer.

The dance began in late February soon after Biogen Idec bought out Elan’s share of the drug, paying Elan $3.2 billion plus the promise of tiered sales royalties. Whether Royalty Pharma succeeds in its hostile buyout is more a matter for our Deals of the Week compatriots, but it’s our duty to note that Royalty and its brethren have plenty more to spend. Royalty raised $600 million in debt in 2012 to put toward investments. Its previous debt raise included $850 million to give back to shareholders. Healthcare Royalty Partners, which dropped the "Cowen" from its name in December, raised a $1 billion fund in early 2012.

Royalty funds are to venture capital what bonds are to stocks: a lower-risk, lower-return investment, and often built with complex structures that purposely limit both parties' risk. They're certainly not going to replace a big chunk of venture capital, because they can't fund companies without current or near-future revenue streams. But as the numbers show, they're providing billions of dollars of capital to an industry that can always use a few extra pennies.

It's no jest. Whether you’re biotech royalty or an indentured serf, you’re always welcome in the biweekly court of…

Vivus: Initial sales of the Vivus weight-loss drug Qsymia (phentermine/topiramate) have been slow, so the company fortified its balance sheet with $50 million in new debt. The "synthetic capped royalty financing" from Pharmakon Advisors, announced March 26, allows Vivus to raise another $60 million in debt before the end of 2013, at a time of Vivus’ choosing. Under the terms of the arrangement, Vivus is obligated to repay the Pharmakon fund according to a schedule of pre-set payments between 2014 and 2018, or 25% of Qsymia royalties, whichever is valued lower. Analysts expect that Vivus would make quarterly payments between $7 million and $10.3 million during most of the four-year schedule, if it opts to raise the other $60 million later this year. The total repaid is likely to be about $162 million, according to analysts. Sales of Qsymia were just $2 million during the fourth quarter of 2012, its first full quarter on the market since FDA approved the drug in July 2012. Vivus had $213 million in cash and equivalents on Dec. 31, and spent $58 million on its operations during the fourth quarter. The company is seeking to modify its current Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Strategy for Qsymia, which limits sales of the drug to mail-order pharmacies; an FDA decision allowing it to sell via traditional pharmacies could come in late April or early May. – Paul Bonanos

Novira Therapeutics: The antiviral startup said March 26 it has topped off last year’s Series A with $7.5 million from Versant Ventures, matching the earlier co-lead investors and bringing the round’s total to $25 million. Novira is one of the few startups around working on treatments for Hepatitis B, its lead program, and for HIV. That, plus its pursuit of a relatively new mechanism of action – capsid assembly inhibition -- was enough to put Novira on our sister publication Start-Up’s annual A-List, which highlights the year’s most intriguing recipients of Series A money. 5am Ventures and Canaan Partners led the initial Series A investment, which came after the company spent years subsisting on angel and nonprofit funding and casting about for a way forward. The angels who nurtured the firm through its pre-Series A years also participated in the A round. Only after Lalo Flores, former head of antiviral research at Merck & Co. took over did Novira steer toward capsid assembly. It aims to file an IND for its lead HBV program by year’s end. The company's oral therapeutic candidates could potentially be used as both a monotherapy or in combination with currently used drugs. The company says the Series A money should be enough to move that initial program into Phase Ib or Phase IIa. For Versant’s contribution, the firm will place one of its new European team members, Gianni Gromo, in a board seat. Gromo is one of three Versant partners based in Basel, Switzerland and has ties to Versant’s top biopharma managing director Brad Bolzon from their days at Roche. – Alex Lash

Theraclone Sciences: Another antiviral add-on this week, with Seattle-based Theraclone bringing its Series B total to $50 million with contributions from a host of existing investors including Arch Venture Partners, Canaan Partners, MPM Capital, and Healthcare Ventures. In addition to the extra $8 million from investors, the antibody platform company also secured $6 million in debt from MidCap Financial and Silicon Valley Bank. The firm’s lead programs in the clinic are aimed at pandemic and seasonal flu, partnered with Zenyaku Kogyo, and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV). It has a discovery-phase antibody partnership with Pfizer, as well, and it has worked with Scripps scientists and the International AIDS Vaccine Institute on research to identify more than a dozen “broadly neutralizing” antibodies that might eventually lead to a vaccine for HIV. Theraclone’s platform screens for antibodies from the B cells of the lucky humans who demonstrate natural resistance to particular diseases. Once called Spaltudaq, Theraclone is one of a handful of biotechs to emerge from the Seattle incubator Accelerator and has had its share of tribulations, the worst of which was the sudden death of its CEO David Fanning in 2010. – A.L.

Receptos: The San Diego biotech filed April 4 its intent to go public, joining the growing queue of life science firms with hopes of breaking through to public markets. The firm is farther along in the IPO process than it might have been in previous times, as it actually filed its S-1 confidentially in February under new securities rules ushered in by last year's JOBS Act. Its lead compound is in Phase II testing against relapsing multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Its top four shareholders, each with slightly more than 15% ownership, are Flagship Ventures, Lilly Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, and Venrock. An IPO would also benefit a much newer venture fund, Osage University Partners, which is trying to prove the worth of a new model based on schools’ participation rights that we describe in the March issue of Start-Up. Based on work that elucidates the structures of G-coupled protein receptors, Receptos spun out of the Scripps Research Institute, which has a partnership with Osage, which would send a slice of its carried interest back to Scripps if the fund succeeds. A Receptos IPO would certainly help. It has not yet set terms of the offer. Credit Suisse and Leerink Swann are leading the underwriting team. Other health care firms on file to go public include Bausch & Lomb, Chimerix, Omthera Pharmaceuticals, Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology, Ambit Biosciences, and Sophiris Bio. – A.L.

All The Rest: Raising $38mm from Invesco Asset Management in the biggest venture financing of the fortnight was infirst Healthcare, founded less than a year ago to launch new consumer cough and cold and pain medicines…Through a $33mm Series E financing (concurrent with the conversion of $71mm in debt into Series E preferred stock), Revance Therapeutics aims to complete Phase III trials for RT001, a topical botulinum toxin type A for crow’s feet wrinkles…Led by two China-focused venture funds, research and diagnostics MAb firm OriGene Technologies brought in $21.3mm in its Series D round…With participation from J&J Development and Pfizer Venture, Aquinox Pharma secured $18mm in Series C financing to help advance its Phase II AQX-1125 for COPD… To support development of spec pharma Taris Biomedical’s LiRIS (Lidocaine-Releasing Intravesical System) Phase II interstitial cystitis candidate, return backers added $12.5mm to the $37.3mm the company had previously raised…Schizophrenia drug firm Reviva Pharmaceuticals received $12mm in early-stage debt and equity funding from undisclosed investors… In a Series A round, Hurel Corp. (artificial tissue constructs and microfluidic cell-based assay platforms) snagged $9.2mm from Spring Mountain Capital… Genomic data analysis start-up Bina Technologies brought in $6.25mm of a planned $8mm Series B round…In the second close of initial financing secured in November 2012 when it spun-off from InDevR, rapid virus quantification firm ViroCyt has brought the total funding to $5mm…Undisclosed equity financing secured from the Innovation & Investment Fund Gelderland (managed by PPM Oost) along with several angel backers will enable InteRNA Technologies to progress its lead candidate miR-3157 for melanoma through preclinical studies…In a private placement, public Australian company Prana Biotech issued 35.9mm new fully paid ordinary shares at a price of A$0.195, for $7.3mm in proceeds to fund further development of PBT2, now in two concurrent Phase II trials in Huntington disease and Alzheimer's disease… Through a follow-on offering of up to 165.7mm new Hong Kong-listed shares at HK$24.60, Chinese CRO Sinopharm Group could reap $515.3mm in proceeds to expand its sales network and complete additional M&As… Arca Biopharma hopes to bring in $20mm in a FOPO to fund a Phase IIb trial of Gencaro (bucindolol hydrochloride) for atrial fibrillation… With proceeds from a public offering of units, public Toronto spec pharma Trimel Pharmaceuticals hopes to fund costs related to an NDA filing and further clinical trials for its CompleoTRT bioadhesive intranasal gel technology for male hypogonadism… Eye care giant Bausch & Lomb – owned by PE firm Warburg Pincus, which acquired it and took it private in a $3.67bn 2007 buy-out – filed for an initial public offering that could raise as much as $1.5bn… Two biotechs sent ranges for IPOS, but have yet to price: Chimerix (oral antivirals) plans to sell 6.1mm shares at $13-15, while dyslipidemia therapeutics company Omthera Pharmaceuticals said it hopes to get between $12-14 through the sale of 5.8mm shares… Cell Therapeutics, using proceeds from a $15mm senior secured term loan with Hercules Technology Growth Capital, hopes to advance Phase III pacritinib (for myelofibrosis) and promote recently EMA-approved non-Hodgkin lymphoma treatment Pixuvri (pixantrone) in Europe…In a second debt financing by Hercules, CNS stem cell therapeutics developer Neuralstem issued the finance company 649k warrants to purchase Neuralstem stock at an exercise price of $1.08…In exchange for up to $16mm, ophthalmologic drug developer InSite Vision will sell its future royalties on bacterial eye infection medicine Besivance (besifloxacin ophthalmic suspension) to SWK Funding LLC…Cancer-focused public Australian biotech Prima Biomed hopes to raise $15.6mm in a rights offering of up to 150mm new fully paid ordinary shares. - Maureen Riordan

Royally weird photo courtesy of flickrer simononly.

Deals Of The Week: Elan Takes It All Off, Attracts Suitors

Elan Corp. PLC has been engaged in a slow motion strip-tease over the past five years; it has now shed so many assets that it may soon disappear entirely. On Feb. 25, Royalty Pharma fielded an $11/share, $6.5 billion bid for the company. That was a 12.7% premium over the volume weighted average closing share price for Elan between Feb. 6 and Feb. 15. Elan’s directors, predictably, said the offer was too low. But the offer may be fitting in that it reflects the notion that Elan, once a CNS R&D focused biopharma, is now a royalty-generating cash shell.

In 2009 Elan peeled off its Alzheimer’s immunotherapy pipeline in a deal with Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. in 2009; followed by the removal of its drug delivery business to Alkermes PLC in 2011; capped by the spinning off of its Neotope Biosciences PLC drug discovery business in 2012. The drug discovery spin-out, renamed Prothena Biosciences Ltd., was announced days after Elan’s AD development partners Janssen and Pfizer Inc. discontinued further IV clinical development of bapineuzumab.

The purpose of the asset sales was to reduce Elan’s runaway debt so it could foray into new approaches to treating AD and other CNS disorders. On the eve of the Janssen deal, it was carrying $1.7 billion in debt. By the time of the Neotope spinout, the goal was to position the company as a takeout target for a buyer interested in Tysabri’s revenue stream.

Tysabri partner Biogen Idec Inc. struck on Feb. 6. Elan secured a $3.2 billion upfront payment and a graduated royalty on Tysabri sales beginning at 12% in the first year, rising to 18% on sales below $2 billion and 25% on sales over $2 billion. Moreover, Elan’s royalties include all future indications, both MS and non-MS. Tysabri is being studied in secondary-progressive MS, and Biogen has indicated it may look into the drug as a treatment for stroke.

Elan told analysts in its same-day year-end 2012 earnings call, that it would spend its windfall on acquiring “income-producing assets,” despite not having a sales and marketing organization.

Elan’s recent history is reminiscent of PDL BioPharma Inc. Both companies have shed operating assets over the past five years, essentially reducing themselves to financial plays that relied on significant product royalties. Both companies also told shareholders that they would morph into commercial product companies.
But PDL made the transition because the clock on its patent estate – which gave it a slice of revenue from some of the most lucrative antibody franchises of the past decade – was running out. It hired a couple of dealmaking veterans and told its shareholders that if it didn’t find any revenue-bearing assets by some point in 2014 it would wind up shop. A January 2013 corporate presentation on PDL’s web site indicates that in the second half of 2012 the company invested $115.8 million dollars in three life science companies.

It’s unclear why Elan wants to go back to being a product company, much less a non-neurology focused company. Unfortunately, the Street hasn’t bought into its latest plan for reinvention, giving Royalty Pharma its current opportunity. UPDATE: In an effort to fend off Royalty’s unwanted offer, on Monday March 4th Elan’s board approved a twice-yearly dividend to shareholders linked directly to Tysabri’s performance. Beginning in Q4 2013, shareholders would receive an initial 20% share of Elan’s Tysabri royalty.

As of this writing, no other buyers have come forward to bid up the price. Marko Kozul, biotech analyst at Leerink Swann, advised shareholders to accept the offer. Royalty Pharma is certainly a motivated buyer; in May 2012, it paid $761 million for part of the earn-out for the oral MS drug BG-12 payable to the former shareholders of Fumapharm AG, which Biogen acquired in 2006. Kozul calculates that BG-12 revenues will peak at around $4 billion in 2018 and the NPV for the total royalty stream, an undisclosed piece of which goes to Royalty Pharma each year, sums to $3.1 billion.

There isn’t a compelling reason for Elan shareholders to prefer management’s risky plan to simply cashing in at the modest premium that Royalty is offering. They are perfectly capable of investing the money themselves, and needn’t trust Elan to pick winning investments. Or to execute on its vision.

And talk about investment ideas, here’s a sampling of  . . .

Jazz/Concert: Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC is singing a happy tune now that it has secured a follow-on for its lead revenue driver, the narcolepsy drug Xyrem (sodium oxybate). The company announced Feb. 26 that it has inked a deal with Concert Pharmaceuticals Inc. to develop and commercialize a portfolio of deuterium-modified sodium oxybate compounds, including C-10323 ([A#14130227004]). The deal included an undisclosed upfront, as well as the potential for $120 million in milestone payments to Concert, which will handle Phase I development of C-10323. Should a product reach the market, Concert will be eligible for tiered double-digit royalties on worldwide sales.

Xyrem, a treatment for sudden muscle weakness and daytime sleepiness in patients with narcolepsy, accounted for 65% of Jazz’s total 2012 revenues. The drug, which has to be tightly controlled due to its potential for abuse, is covered by 10 patents that expire from 2019 to 2024, with other patent applications pending. But Jazz is already facing patent challenges for the drug, and its deal with Concert is one way to shore up the franchise. C-10323 is expected to have a better dosing schedule, longer half-life, greater efficacy in cataplexy patients, and fewer side effects than its predecessor. Oh and by modifying the drug with deuterium, Jazz gets to reset the patent clock. - Lisa LaMotta

Mylan/Agila Specialities: Quelling months of speculation, Strides Arcolab Ltd. finally sold its highly profitable injectibles arm Agila Specialties Pvt. Ltd. to U.S. generics giant Mylan Inc. for $1.6 billion cash and $250 million in potential milestone payments. Mylan toppled several global contenders, reportedly Pfizer, Otsuka Holdings Co. Ltd., and Novartis AG, among others, to clinch the unit that multiplied in size in less than five years by seizing opportunities from a raft of injectable oncology drugs in the U.S. Mylan valued Agila at 18.7x EBITDA of $86 million. Agila had revenues of $255 million through the end of December 2012. Carved out of Strides Arcolab in November 2010, Bangalore-headquartered Agila has been consistently rolling out copies of hard-to-make cancer drugs. Its prospects brightened further by a series of manufacturing and compliance lapses that dogged its competitors, adding fuel to speculation last year of an impending sale by Strides.

Mylan expects to double its injectibles business in the first year after the acquisition, and believes its specialty segment will grow 30% in 2013, execs said during the company’s Feb. 27 earnings call. The deal strengthens Mylan’s global presence and gains it entry into high-growth emerging markets such as Brazil. Roughly 40% of Agila's revenue comes from the U.S., and one-fourth comes from Brazil, with the balance coming from Europe, Australia, and other established and developing markets.- Vikas Dandekar

UCB Group/Biotie Therapies: Finland's Biotie Therapies Corp. is having a good week, brightening up a traditionally gloomy time of the year for Europe's most northerly residents. Not only did the EU clear its lead product, Selincro (nalmefene) for marketing by partner Lundbeck Inc. on March 1, but another collaborator, Belgium's UCB SA, appears so pleased with a Phase II Parkinson's therapy that it has asked Biotie to conduct Phase III studies on the compound. UCB took out an option on Biotie's investigational Parkinson's therapy, tozadenant, in 2010. The company has now exercised the option after the completion of a Phase IIb clinical trial, earning Biotie a fee of $20 million, the companies announced Feb. 26. Biotie also remains eligible to receive a further $340 million in milestone payments. But with Biotie now conducting Phase III trials on tozadenant instead of UCB, as laid out in the original agreement, Biotie will also receive further payments, in the low triple digit millions, to fund that work.

In return, UCB has worldwide exclusive rights to tozadenant, and will be responsible for manufacturing and commercialization. Tozadenant is a selective inhibitor of the adenosine A2a receptor, expressed in high levels in parts of the CNS, particularly the striatum, involved in controlling movement. The binding of tozadenant blocks the effects of adenosine at its receptor, thereby increasing the effects of dopamine, and also inhibiting the effects of glutamine at the mGluR5 receptor. Dopaminergic processes are already targeted by numerous marketed Parkinson's disease therapies. - John Davis

Janssen Biotech/Araxes Pharma: The Johnson & Johnson division Janssen Inc. has paid an undisclosed amount for an option to license exclusively an oncology program being developed by Araxes Pharma LLC. The decision point to exercise the option for the program, which is focused on an undisclosed target, will come after Phase I, says Araxes CEO and president Troy Wilson. Araxes is the first announced spin-out from Wilson’s Wellspring Biosciences, a self-described “drug-discovery incubator” in San Diego that Wilson and his former colleagues at Intellikine Inc. have created as an umbrella organization for what they hope will be multiple drug programs. It’s the latest asset-centric biotech development plan, in which individual programs are housed separately from their discovery platform to simplify deal-making and create cleaner tax structures for investors. Others include Inception Sciences Inc., Forma Therapeutics LLC, and Nimbus Discovery LLC.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all structure,” says Wilson. Intellikine, which sold to Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.’s Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. division for up to $310 million in late 2011, specialized in PI3 kinase inhibitors. Wellspring is, in effect, the employee agency for Araxes and affiliates that might follow; Wellspring employees will do the R&D but the affiliates will own the patents, the cash from partnerships, and the regulatory responsibility. In addition to an upfront fee, Janssen will also pay Araxes R&D funding and potential milestones and royalties. - Alex Lash

Takeda/Resolve: The Japanese pharma has inked an option agreement with three-year old Seattle biotech Resolve Therapeutics LLC that will give the larger company a new addition to its immunology pipeline. Takeda agreed to pay $8 million upfront to Resolve to develop RSLV-132 for the treatment of lupus. Resolve is expected to take the drug through Phase Ib with a readout of data at the end of 2014. Once data is available on the drug Takeda will have the right to option it for further development. Resolve will then be eligible for an undisclosed option fee and for $274 million in milestone payments, as well as royalties on the marketed product.

Takeda has been trying to bulk up its immunology business since acquiring several COPD drugs through its acquisition of Nycomed Pharma AS. The company expects immunology to account for 12% of its R&D budget during the 2012 -2014 timeframe. It spent about $3.5 billion on R&D in 2011. For Resolve, the option would serve as an exit for investors. The company is not developing any other drugs and never had any intention of pursing an exit through IPO or sale of the company The biotech has only used about $3 million (of a $7.8 million raised over two rounds) in cash since its founding in 2010.- Lisa LaMotta

Cubist/Adynxx: For an up front payment of $20 million, Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc. has acquired an exclusive option to buy Adynxx Inc. following the data readout of Adynxx’s Phase II trial for its lead drug, AYX1, an oligonucleotide treatment for post-surgical pain. Should Cubist exercise its option, it will pay Adynxx $40 million, plus development, regulatory, and sales earn-outs. The deal, announced Feb. 25, would expand Cubist’s acute care pipeline beyond its portfolio of antibiotics, including key revenue driver Cubicin. (Cubist also has rights to Hydra Biosciences TRPA1 inhibitor CB625, in Phase I for acute pain.)  Administered once at the time of surgery, the Adynxx compound inhibits the early growth response protein 1 (EGR1), a transcription factor that triggers pain signals in the brain. This approach could reduce the need for pain medications and prevent acute pain from transitioning into chronic pain, said the company. The candidate is currently being tested in unilateral total knee arthroplasty to reduce movement evoked pain and to improve the rate and extent of functional recovery. Adynxx’ CEO Rick Orr was a co-founder of Cerexa Inc., which Forest Laboratories Inc. acquired in 2007 and more recently was COO of Corthera, which Novartis AG bought in 2010. - Wendy Diller

LEO Pharma/4SC Discovery: The psoriasis market has many drug makers just itching to get into it. The latest to move are Denmark-based Leo Pharma AS and German biotech company 4SC Discovery GmbH. The duo has entered a pact to jointly research, develop and commercialize a pill for treating inflammatory skin diseases like psoriasis. Leo Pharma will pay €1 million ($1.3 million) up-front to 4SC Discovery and additional funding for research and development. Leo Pharma will receive an exclusive option to license the worldwide marketing and commercialization rights of the compound. 4SC Discovery, a subsidiary of oncology and autoimmune specialist 4SC Group, will be eligible for a milestone payment of up to €3 million and further payments based on specific development milestones of up to €92 million along with double-digit royalties. - Sten Stovall


Russian dolls by London based artist Yana Elkassova

DOTW: Biogen Puts Offshore Cash to Work

When it comes to corporate tax planning, biopharmas as a group aren’t spectacularly sophisticated. (A few exceptions come to mind, most notably specialty pharma Valeant and Bristol Myers-Squibb, the latter of which upped its game and expects to drop its tax rate to 16% in 2013. That's down from 26% in 2011.)

It’s particularly hard for U.S. biopharmas to do much with offshore cash. That’s unless they buy something outside the U.S. or pay a high tax rate to bring cash into the U.S. Or they can opt to keep stockpiling cash ex-U.S. in hopes a cash- repatriation tax holiday is on the horizon, an unlikely scenario anytime soon given the ongoing fiscal standoff.

This week, Biogen Idec made a bold move by using offshore cash to acquire full rights to multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri (natalizumab) from its previously 50/50 partner Elan. The deal manages to turn cash sitting on its balance sheet, much of it offshore, almost immediately into a bump for EPS and cash flow - a neat trick. Deutsche Bank analyst Robyn Karnauskas upped her 2013 EPS estimate to $7.76 from $7.15 and her 2013 revenue estimate to $6.6 billion from $6.1 billion. She expects the new structure to be in place in the second quarter.

The deal includes a $3.25 billion upfront payment from Biogen to Ireland-based Elan. Most of this will come from offshore cash, Biogen CFO and EVP Paul Clancy said on a Feb. 6 call. Biogen Idec had $3.7 billion in cash at Dec. 31. In addition, Elan will receive 12% of Tysabri sales in the first year and then after that 18% on sales under $2 billion and 25% on sales over $2 billion. Tysabri had 2012 sales of $1.6 billion, with some analysts modelling peak annual sales well above $2 billion.

Biogen CEO George Scangos made reviving Tysabri revenue growth a priority when he began his tenure in June 2010. After a 2004 approval, Tysabri was withdrawn from the market in 2006 due to reports of the fatal brain disease, progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). It re-entered the market in 2006 with a label for second-line use and a boxed warning. Scangos pushed for the development and approval of a test for JCV antibodies to assess PML risk. In January 2012, FDA updated the Tysabri label on include information quantifying the risks of developing PML according to JCV antibody status. Last month, the partners submitted applications to FDA and EMA for first-line use of Tysabri in patients who test negative for antibodies to the JC virus.

Wall Street initially was wildly enthusiastic about Biogen’s move, spiking shares up 6% in early trading Feb. 6. But since then, the Street has become a bit more cautious, with the gain retreating to about 2% by market close on Feb. 7. Skeptics worry Tysabri won’t live up to revenue expectations or that Biogen’s execution of this deal just ahead of the March 28 PDUFA date for the oral MS drug formerly known as BG-12, now called Tecfidera (dimethyl fumarate), indicates reduced optimism for the new treatment. On the Elan side, buysiders worry about whether President and CEO Kelly Martin will use that mountain of cash to make useful deals. The company doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to strategic transactions. Elan shares were off 6% by the end of Feb. 7 on the deal.

Biogen Idec is hardly alone among biopharmas in having stacks of offshore cash. At the end of 2011, biopharma companies had a  total of $183 billion in cash most of which was offshore, according to a March report from Moody’s. To put that in some context, that is roughly equal to the combined market caps of Amgen, Gilead Sciences and Bristol. Biopharma is second only to the technology industry when it comes to the sheer amount of cash on the books. Last week, the IT sector also offered an instructive example with the privatization of Dell, which itself could be a partial end-run around offshore cash and corporate taxation issues.

The top biopharma cash hoarders in 2011 were Pfizer ($35.3 billion); Johnson & Johnson ($32.3 billion); Amgen ($20.6 billion); Merck ($18 billion) and Bristol ($11.6 billion). Now that the immediate panic of patent cliffs is behind many of them, perhaps biopharmas will take a breather, look around and think of more creative, tax-efficient ways to deploy all that cash.

For a look the rest of the money that was spent in this week's biopharma deal activity, you need go no further than this week's edition of . . .

Alnylam/The Medicines Co. Hospital specialist The Medicines Co. is jumping into the PCSK9 race for the treatment of high cholesterol in a partnership with RNAi therapeutics developer Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, announced Feb. 4. But the program is far behind other PCSK9 drugs in development at Sanofi/Regeneron and Amgen, which are both in Phase III development. The product, which has completed Phase I testing, will have to prove itself to be differentiated from the leaders if it is to become an eventual commercial success. Alnylam and TMC don’t think that’s a problem because as an RNAi therapeutic ALN-PCS works through a different mechanism of action than the leading drugs in development, which are monoclonal antibodies. That could yield a best-in-class drug, the companies predict, although the results will have to bear out in clinical studies. Alnylam will be responsible for developing the programs further for an estimated one to two years to complete preclinical and Phase I clinical studies of the subcutaneous formulation, and TMC will be responsible for leading and funding development from Phase II forward and for commercializing the program if successful. TMC will pay $25 million upfront and Alnylam stands to receive potential development and commercial milestone payments of up to $180 million and could earn scaled double-digit royalties on sales of the resulting products. It’s not an enormous value for an asset that hits such a hot target. Alnylam Chief Business Officer Laurence Reid admitted the upfront portion of the deal reflects the competitive dynamics in the PCSK9 field and the fact that there are several drugs in later stages of development. - Jessica Merrill

Inspiration/Cangene: French company Ipsen is finally free of U.S. partner Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals. Cangene has agreed to buy rights to IB1001, a recombinant factor IX (rFIX) for the treatment of hemophilia B, which FDA put on clinical hold in 2012. The deal, announced Feb. 6, completes the sale process of all Ipsen and Inspiration hemophilia assets and follows the Jan. 24 news that Baxter would buy the troubled biotech’s flagship hemophilia drug OBI-1 and related Boston manufacturing facility. Inspiration entered Chapter 11 protection at the end of October 2012 to restructure and find a buyer for its two main hemophilia products: OBI-1, a recombinant porcine factor VIII (rpFVIII) for treating hemophilia A with inhibitors, and IB1001. In return for global rights to IB1001, Cangene agreed to pay $5.9 million upfront and up to $50 million in potential additional commercial milestones, as well as net sales payments equivalent to a tiered double-digit percentage of IB1001 annual net sales. Meanwhile Baxter, in its transaction pact for OBI-1, will pay $50 million upfront, up to $135 million in potential additional development and commercial milestones as well as tiered net sales payments ranging from 12.5% to 17.5% of OBI-1 annual net sales. As Inspiration's only senior secured creditor and as the owner of non-Inspiration assets that will be included in the sale of both OBI-1 and IB1001, Ipsen will get some 60% of the overall upfront payments. Ipsen is clearly relieved to have found a buyer for IB1001 given the medicine’s shaky regulatory prospects after the FDA-imposed clinical hold on IB1001 impacted two ongoing phase III trials. Since Inspiration filed for bankruptcy protection, Ipsen has backed the biotech with $23.6 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to keep it going amid efforts to sell its assets. Ipsen expects to cover the DIP amount with its share of upfront payments from the two asset sales with Baxter and Cangene. The French biotech may take a €100 million impairment charge for the hemophilia assets such as convertible bonds used to finance the collaboration and its investment in the Milford, MA plant. A fuller picture should come on Feb. 27 when Ipsen reports 2012 earnings. - Sten Stovall

Pfizer/OxOnc: Drug-development group OxOnc, which is funded by health care hedge fund OrbiMed Advisors, signed a deal with Pfizer to co-develop Xalkori (crizotinib) in a pivotal clinical trial intended to enable the approval of the drug in Asian countries in a new indication. Xalkori is already approved in the U.S., EU, Japan and other countries to treat patients with ALK-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This trial would be in ROS1-positive advanced NSCLC patients. The trial will be at multiple sites in Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea. OxOnc will be eligible to receive undisclosed milestones if Xalkori is approved in this indication. No further details were disclosed. - Stacy Lawrence

Isotechnika /Aurinia: Isotechnika licensed out exclusive rights a year ago to its lead drug in a couple of indications and now it’s planning a merger to get it back. Last January, the Canadian company licensed rights to voclosporin to treat lupus and proteinuric nephrology indications to Vifor Pharma. Swiss specialty pharma Vifor subsequently spun out Aurinia with the asset. Isotechnika and Aurinia now are planning to merge under undisclosed terms with post-merger ownership of 60/40, respectively. The merged company will trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange and be known as Aurinia. Management will come from both companies. Aurinia’s management is primarily from Aspreva Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by the Galenica Group for C$915 million in 2008. Vifor is also part of the Galenica Group. The merger is expected to complete by March 15, pending approval from Isotechnika shareholders and the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as the raising of C$3 million by Isotechnika. The new company plans to start a Phase IIb study this year of voclosporin, in addition to standard of care, to treat lupus nephritis. - S.L.

Stacks of Euros photo courtesy of flickr user aranjuez1404.