M&A: Week 11
In this week's M&A review
- Jazz Pharmaceuticals acquires Chimerix for approximately US$935 million in cash
Jazz Pharmaceuticals acquires Chimerix for approximately US$935 million in cash
Through the acquisition Jazz Pharmaceuticals gains access to dordaviprone, a novel small molecule therapy in development for H3 K27M-mutant diffuse glioma in children and young adults. The transaction has been approved by both companies and is expected to close in Q2 of this year.
The acquisition sees Jazz Pharmaceuticals gain access to two distinct patent portfolios. The Chimerix portfolio and the Oncoceutics portfolio. Oncoceutics was acquired by Chimerix in Jan 2021. These two patent portfolios seem to be independent of each other.
Chimerix has 308 pending patents and 87 granted patents across 35 patent families. The majority of their granted patents have been filed since 2010.
Analysing their portfolio by number of applications by priority shows two peak filing periods - 2010 and 2015.
However, it looks like their innovation pipeline has stalled. There has been very few applications since 2015. Even fewer application filings within the past five years compared to previous years, while it could indicate patents filed within the past fives years have yet to be published, which is certainly possible, There has been very few application patents since the peak in 2015.
Oncoceutics' patent portfolio has 191 pending patents and 62 granted patents across 8 patent families. All of their patents have been filed since 2013.
Analysing their portfolio by number of applications by priority shows two peak filing periods - 2013 and 2015. Since 2018 there are fewer applications - this may indicate patents filed within the past fives years have yet to be published, or a slowing of the innovation pipeline. It may also be an indication there are limited opportunities for "incremental innovation" to occur for pharmaceutical patents - unlike say semiconductors or consumer electronics that can be more readily enhanced by small incremental changes to the product or design.
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