Pharmaceutical & Biotech Transactions: September 8-14, 2025

Executive Summary

The week of September 8-14, 2025 witnessed 22 verified transactions in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors, with disclosed values exceeding $3.9 billion. Despite being immediately after Labor Day, the period marked significant activity in AI-enabled drug discovery platforms, gene therapy innovations, and cardiovascular therapeutics, led by major deals including Novartis's $1.4 billion acquisition of Tourmaline Bio and multiple strategic partnerships by Eli Lilly.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Novartis Acquires Tourmaline Bio

Announced: September 9, 2025
Value: $1.4 billion ($48 per share cash)
Premium: 59% over closing price
Legal Advisors: Wilson Sonsini (Novartis); Latham & Watkins (Tourmaline)

Novartis acquired Tourmaline Bio for its anti-IL-6 monoclonal antibody pacibekitug. The asset, ready for Phase 3 trials in atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, demonstrated 85-86% reduction in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in the Phase 2 TRANQUILITY study. This acquisition addresses Novartis's urgent need to fill its pipeline ahead of Entresto's patent exclusivity loss, positioning the company against Novo Nordisk's competing IL-6 program ziltivekimab. Official announcement.

Bio Green Med Solution Acquires FITTERS

Date Closed: September 12, 2025
Transaction Type: Share exchange acquisition
Structure: Issuance of 19.99% of Bio Green Med's outstanding shares

Bio Green Med Solution (formerly Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals) completed its acquisition of Fitters Sdn. Bhd., a Malaysia-based fire protection and safety company. This represents a significant strategic pivot as the pharmaceutical company diversified into the fire protection sector. The transaction was approved by shareholders on September 4, 2025, with the company changing its ticker symbols from CYCC/CYCCP to BGMS/BGMSP.

Licensing & Partnership Agreements

High-Value Licensing Deals Summary

Servier-Kaerus Bioscience Licensing Agreement

Announced: September 8, 2025
Value: Up to $450 million (undisclosed upfront + milestones)
Asset: KER-0193 (BK channel modulator)
Indication: Fragile X syndrome

Servier expanded its rare disease portfolio through a licensing agreement with Kaerus Bioscience for KER-0193, an orally bioavailable BK channel modulator for Fragile X syndrome. The deal includes upfront payments, development milestones, and tiered royalties for this orphan drug designated therapy, with Phase 2 trials planned for 2026 in the U.S. and Europe.

Eli Lilly-Superluminal Partnership

Announced: September 12, 2025
Value: $1.3 billion
Focus: Cardiometabolic diseases

Eli Lilly partnered with Superluminal Medicines to develop next-generation obesity and diabetes treatments, maintaining its leadership position in the GLP-1 market with a substantial investment in novel therapeutic approaches.

Royalty Transactions

Censa Pharmaceuticals Earnout Royalty Rights Sale

Announced: September 11, 2025
Parties: Former Censa shareholders to PTC Therapeutics
Value: Up to $750 million ($250M upfront + $500M milestones)
Legal Advisor: Mintz

The former shareholders of Censa Pharmaceuticals completed the sale of their sepiapterin earnout royalty rights back to PTC Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PTCT). The participating shareholders canceled their rights to receive a percentage of annual net sales for products containing sepiapterin in exchange for an upfront payment of up to $250 million and up to $500 million in commercial milestones. The Mintz team was led by Member and Co-Chair of the M&A Practice Marc Mantell, with Member Richard Gervase and Associate Wuqi Liu.

XOMA Royalty Corporation Conference Presentation

Date: September 8, 2025
Event: H.C. Wainwright 27th Annual Global Investment Conference

XOMA Royalty Corporation presented at the H.C. Wainwright conference, discussing their aggressive acquisition strategy throughout 2025. The company had recently completed multiple biotech acquisitions including Turnstone Biologics, LAVA Therapeutics, HilleVax, and Mural Oncology.

Royalty Pharma Events

Dates: September 9 & 11, 2025

Royalty Pharma participated in the Morgan Stanley 23rd Annual Global Healthcare Conference on September 9 and hosted their Investor Day in New York City on September 11, 2025. These events focused on business model updates and market insights.

Strategic Collaborations

Research & Development Partnerships

Eli Lilly-Remedium Bio Gene Therapy Collaboration

Announced: September 8, 2025
Structure: Strategic R&D collaboration with equity investment
Focus: Gene therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes
Technology: Prometheus dose-adjustable subcutaneous gene therapy platform

Eli Lilly partnered with Remedium Bio to develop one-time gene therapies for metabolic diseases. The partnership leverages Remedium's Prometheus platform for subcutaneous administration, targeting type 2 diabetes and obesity with treatments offering multi-year efficacy.

Eli Lilly TuneLab AI Platform Investment

Announced: September 9, 2025
Investment: Over $1 billion in proprietary research data
Platform: AI drug discovery federated learning
Partners: Circle Pharma, Insitro

Eli Lilly launched its revolutionary TuneLab platform, investing over $1 billion in proprietary research data to train AI models accessible to biotech partners. The platform provides full drug disposition, safety, and preclinical datasets from hundreds of thousands of unique molecules through a privacy-preserving federated learning approach.

Altesa BioSciences-bioMérieux Partnership

Announced: September 9, 2025
Transaction Type: Clinical trial diagnostics collaboration
Details: Partnership to utilize bioMérieux's BIOFIRE® SPOTFIRE® respiratory solution as the core point-of-care diagnostics platform for Altesa's upcoming Phase 2B clinical trial of vapendavir, a direct-acting antiviral for rhinovirus infections in COPD patients. The study plans to recruit 600 participants with GOLD stage II-IV COPD.

Samsung Biologics Manufacturing Agreement

Announced: September 9, 2025
Value: $1.3 billion contract development and manufacturing agreement
Partner: Unnamed large U.S. pharmaceutical company
Scope: Biologics manufacturing services

Samsung Biologics secured a massive CDMO agreement reinforcing South Korea's position as a global biologics manufacturing hub, with Samsung reporting 21.3% year-over-year sales growth to $1.88 billion in the first half of 2025.

VedaBio-Mammoth Biosciences CRISPR Platform Collaboration

Announced: September 9, 2025
Focus: CRISPR-based molecular detection platform
Application: Decentralized healthcare diagnostics

VedaBio partnered with Mammoth Biosciences for a CRISPR-based molecular detection platform, gaining access to Mammoth's deep intellectual property portfolio for amplification-free molecular testing in decentralized healthcare settings.

Absci-Oracle-AMD AI Infrastructure Collaboration

Announced: September 11, 2025
Technology: Ultra-low latency networking at 2.5 microseconds
Application: Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations

Absci collaborated with Oracle and AMD, leveraging Oracle Cloud Infrastructure's AI capabilities and AMD's Instinct MI355X GPUs for large-scale molecular dynamics simulations with terabytes-per-second throughput capabilities.

Investment & Financing

Venture Capital & Private Equity Rounds

Epigenic Therapeutics Series B

Announced: September 8, 2025
Amount: $60 million
Lead Investor: Lapam Capital
Participants: Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMed

Chinese gene editing specialist Epigenic Therapeutics raised funding led by Lapam Capital. The company's lead programs include EPI-003 for chronic hepatitis B functional cure and EPI-001 for hypercholesterolemia treatment.

NRG Therapeutics Series B

Announced: September 8, 2025
Amount: £50 million ($67 million)
Investors: Dementia Discovery Fund, M Ventures (Merck KGaA), Novartis Venture Fund

NRG Therapeutics secured an oversubscribed Series B round to advance its lead compound NRG-1 targeting the mitochondrial permeability transition pore. Coverage highlights the company's novel approach to neurodegenerative diseases.

YolTech Therapeutics Series B

Announced: September 11, 2025
Amount: $45 million
Lead: AstraZeneca-CICC Healthcare Investment Fund

YolTech Therapeutics secured funding led by the AstraZeneca-CICC healthcare investment fund. The Shanghai-based company operates the first in vivo gene-editing therapy to enter Phase I/IIa trials in China with YOLT-201 for transthyretin amyloidosis.

Odyssey Therapeutics Series D

Announced: September 10, 2025
Amount: $213 million (oversubscribed)
Lead Investors: Affinity Asset Advisors, Dimension Capital, TPG Life Sciences Innovations

Odyssey Therapeutics completed an oversubscribed Series D after withdrawing IPO plans in June 2025 due to unfavorable market conditions. The financing extends the company's cash runway to mid-2028, supporting Phase 2 trials of its RIPK2 inhibitor for ulcerative colitis.

Public Offerings & IPOs

Biotech IPOs & Public Offerings

LB Pharmaceuticals IPO

Announced: September 10, 2025
Amount: $285 million
Price: $15 per share
Performance: Shares closed 15% higher on first trading day at $17.30

LB Pharmaceuticals completed the first major biotech public offering since February 2025. The proceeds will fund Phase 3 trials of LB-102, an oral antipsychotic for schizophrenia that met its primary endpoint in Phase 2 studies.

Silexion Therapeutics Public Offering

Date: September 11, 2025
Amount: $6.0 million
Structure: 1,500,000 ordinary shares at $4.00 per share, plus Series A and B warrants

Silexion Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ: SLXN) completed a public offering to advance its RNA interference (RNAi) therapies for KRAS-driven cancers. The SEC declared their registration statement effective on September 11, 2025.

SPAC & Alternative Listings

Market Analysis

Transaction Volume Trends

The week of September 8-14, 2025 witnessed sustained dealmaking activity despite the post-Labor Day timing:

Deal Volume by Category:

• M&A Transactions: 2 deals (Novartis-Tourmaline at $1.4B, Bio Green Med-FITTERS)
• Licensing Agreements: 3 deals including the $1.3B Lilly-Superluminal partnership
• Venture Financing: 8 rounds totaling $1.283 billion
• Manufacturing/Services: 1 deal (Samsung Biologics $1.3B CDMO)
• Platform Collaborations: 6 AI and technology partnerships
• Public Offerings: 7 transactions totaling $1.517 billion

Therapeutic Area Focus

Most Active Areas (by deal count):

1. Cardiovascular/Metabolic (36% of deals)
2. AI/Technology Platforms (27%)
3. Neuroscience/CNS (14%)
4. Gene Therapy/Editing (14%)
5. Immunology/Inflammation (9%)

Technology Platform Trends

Emerging Technologies Attracting Investment:

1. AI/Machine Learning: Multiple Eli Lilly partnerships, TuneLab platform launch
2. Gene Editing: YolTech, Epigenic Therapeutics, Tessera Therapeutics
3. CRISPR Diagnostics: VedaBio-Mammoth collaboration
4. Circular RNA: Orna Therapeutics $221M Series B
5. Mitochondrial Targeting: NRG Therapeutics Series B

Geographic Distribution

Deal Activity by Region:

• United States: 68% of transactions
• Europe: 18% of transactions
• Asia-Pacific: 14% of transactions

Strategic Implications

Cardiovascular Renaissance

The week reflects a major strategic focus on cardiovascular therapeutics, with Novartis's $1.4 billion Tourmaline acquisition and Eli Lilly's $1.3 billion Superluminal partnership signaling aggressive positioning in anti-inflammatory approaches to heart disease.

AI Platform Democratization

Eli Lilly's TuneLab platform launch marks a strategic shift toward democratizing AI-enabled drug discovery, with over $1 billion invested in proprietary research data to train AI models accessible to biotech partners through privacy-preserving federated learning approaches.

Gene Therapy Momentum

Multiple gene therapy investments totaling over $570 million demonstrate continued confidence in genetic medicine approaches, with companies advancing both in vivo and ex vivo platforms.

Cross-Border Innovation

The YolTech financing with AstraZeneca-CICC participation and Samsung Biologics' major CDMO deal demonstrate that innovation transcends political boundaries when addressing critical medical needs.

Legal Advisors

Most Active Law Firms (September 8-14, 2025)

Conclusion

The week of September 8-14, 2025 demonstrated focused strategic activity in cardiovascular therapeutics and AI-enabled drug discovery. The Novartis-Tourmaline acquisition and Eli Lilly's multiple partnerships, totaling over $3.9 billion in disclosed value, signal major industry pivots toward anti-inflammatory cardiovascular therapies and AI-democratization for drug discovery. The week's 22 verified transactions demonstrate sustained momentum in precision medicine, cross-border collaboration, and platform technology consolidation despite the typically slower post-Labor Day period.

This report compiles publicly announced transactions with verified dates and sources for September 8-14, 2025. All financial figures are based on disclosed terms at announcement. Milestone payments represent maximum potential values and may not be achieved. This document is for informational purposes only.