Getting Struck Twice: Acquisitions & Spinouts In Biotech

Lightning can definitely strike the same place twice, or so it seems in biotech. The latest example is True North Therapeutics’ recent acquisition by Bioverativ for its program addressing cold agglutinin disease, a type of rare autoimmune hemolytic anemia: it was a startup born out of a prior acquisition, where it was spun-out of iPerian following the latter’s purchase by BMS.

This acquisition-spinout-acquisition dance move solves for an important macro issue in biotech deal-making: in a multi-asset portfolio, one buyer may not want all the assets, or only assigns marginal value to them.

Back to news