Ligand Pharmaceuticals Acquires Crystal Bioscience

Biogen Acquires Human Immunology Biosciences for up to $1.8B

May 22, 2024

Biotechnology

Biogen Inc. has agreed to acquire Human Immunology Biosciences (HI-Bio) for $1.15 billion upfront and up to $650 million in milestone payments, in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion. The acquisition adds HI-Bio's lead asset felzartamab, an investigational anti-CD38 antibody with Phase 2 data in multiple renal immune-mediated diseases, to Biogen's immunology and rare-disease development capabilities.

Cyrus Biotechnology Acquires Orthogonal Biologics and Raises $18M Series B

December 6, 2021

Biotechnology

Cyrus Biotechnology completed an acquisition of Orthogonal Biologics and closed an $18 million Series B financing to build an integrated software-and-screening pre-clinical biologics discovery firm. The financing was led by a syndicate including OrbiMed Advisors, Trinity Ventures, Agent Capital and other investors, with Selecta Bioscience joining as a strategic investor; the acquisition brings Orthogonal’s deep mutational scanning protein engineering capabilities into Cyrus’s computational discovery platform.

Schrödinger Acquires XTAL BioStructures

January 14, 2022

Biotechnology

Schrödinger, Inc. acquired XTAL BioStructures, Inc., a Natick, Massachusetts–based structural biology services provider, in an all-cash transaction that closed January 14, 2022 for $6 million. The acquisition brings protein production, purification, biophysical methods and X-ray crystallography capabilities in‑house to support Schrödinger's structure-based drug discovery platform and expand its experimental offerings for customers.

Avista SPAC (APAC) to Combine with Ligand's OmniAb in Spin-off and Business Combination

October 24, 2022

Biotechnology

Ligand Pharmaceuticals will spin off its OmniAb antibody discovery business to shareholders and OmniAb will merge with Avista Public Acquisition Corp. II (APAC), making OmniAb a standalone, publicly-traded company. Avista Capital Partners has committed up to $115 million of investment and Ligand will contribute $15 million, providing the combined company with significant cash reserves to support growth and continued platform development.

Genmab Acquires ProfoundBio for $1.8 Billion

April 3, 2024

Biotechnology

Genmab A/S will acquire clinical-stage biotech ProfoundBio, Inc. in an all-cash transaction valued at USD 1.8 billion to obtain worldwide rights to ProfoundBio's pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), including rinatabart sesutecan (Rina-S). The deal is intended to broaden and strengthen Genmab's oncology and ADC capabilities and is expected to close in the first half of 2024, subject to customary conditions.

Optibrium Acquires BioPharmics LLC

August 31, 2023

Software

Optibrium, a Cambridge-based developer of software and AI solutions for small-molecule drug discovery, has acquired BioPharmics LLC to expand its 3D ligand- and structure-based drug design and visualisation capabilities. The acquisition brings BioPharmics' algorithms and products (including ForceGen, Surflex-Dock, eSim and QuanSA) and its founding scientists into Optibrium's StarDrop platform to strengthen 3D modelling, docking and binding-affinity prediction functionality.