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The month of August saw several big pharmas shop stakes in novel drug discovery programs as well as clinical-stage therapies. These included AbbVie, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, and Merck, to name a few. In the customary fashion, biotechs and pharmas went after small molecules last month. Other technologies that were sought after were RNA therapies and antibodies.
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Top biotech M&As of August 2025
As in July, there were six major merger and acquisition (M&A) deals that were inked during the month of August. Pharma giant AbbVie’s $1.2 billion buyout of American biotech Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals’ psychedelic was the most expensive. AbbVie will now have control over bretisilocin, a serotonin receptor agonist to treat patients with major depressive disorder. This is following AbbVie’s collaboration with U.S.-based IGI Therapeutics over developing an antibody in July.
Meanwhile, Royalty Pharma has bankrolled a few pipeline programs this past year. In a $950 million acquisition deal, it bought royalty interest in BeOne Medicines’ stake in Amgen’s bispecific T-cell engager, Imdelltra. It has been approved by regulators to treat small cell lung cancer, and sales hit $215 million in the first half of 2025.
In other royalty deals last month, Xoma Royalty purchased biotech startup Mural Oncology for $36.2 million. Xoma will soon get a hold of the latter’s cancer immunotherapies. This comes after Xoma bought California-based Turnstone Biologics in June, among other buyouts this past year. More royalty deals have been forged as companies are looking at more creative ways to raise capital in challenging equity markets.
Xoma also purchased Dutch company LAVA Therapeutics in August. Lava specializes in T cell therapies; however, its lead blood cancer candidate, LAVA-1266, is being ditched. The buyout will see Lava investors receive $1.16 and $1.24 per share.
Furthermore, American biotech Kite is taking over Philadelphia-based CAR-T therapy developer Interius BioTherapeutics for $350 million in equity value. This enhances Kite’s own focus on cell therapies. Interius’ CAR-T pipeline is unlike traditional cell therapies. Its off-the-shelf therapies are designed to be delivered via a single intravenous dose, eliminating the need for chemotherapy prior to treatment.
Moreover, Parisian company SERB Pharmaceuticals is snapping up New Jersey-based Y-mAbs Therapeutics, known for its monoclonal antibody drug Danyelza for neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that originates in nerve cells and mainly affects children. Y-mAbs faced setbacks this year and slashed its workforce back in January. Now, SERB will gain Danyelza as well as Y-mAbs’ radiopharmaceutical lineup after paying $412 million for them.
Biotech deals by approach in August 2025
Biopharma can’t get enough of small molecules
Chinese company Fosun Pharma forged two deals with fellow biotechs last month. It partnered with U.K.-based inflammation therapeutics startup Sitala. The latter will bag the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize Fosun’s small molecule inhibitor FXS6837 except in regions such as China, Hong Kong, and Macau. Sitala will pay Fosun up to $190 million in upfront, development, and launch milestone payments. Fosun also stands to receive $5 million from shares in Sitala. If the drug candidate meets its market milestones, Fosun will pocket up to $480 million in sales milestones.
Fosun’s second deal was with China-based Accro Bioscience, but this time it will seize control of the latter’s small molecule. The drug in question is AC-201, a TYK2/JAK1 inhibitor, which is being developed to potentially treat inflammatory conditions. Accro will hand over the complete rights to develop, manufacture, and market the drug globally except in China, Hong Kong, and Macau. It will snag RMB 60 million ($8.3 million) upfront and is eligible to receive RMB 20 million ($2.8 million) in milestone payments.
Meanwhile, big pharmas continue their investment in small molecules. German pharmaceutical Merck has inked a partnership with Massachusetts-based Skyhawk Therapeutics in efforts to discover small molecules that target RNA to address neurological disorders. Skyhawk can gain more than $2 billion in upfront and milestone payments as part of the deal. Merck has been siphoning funds of late, considering its $10 billion buyout of U.K.-based Verona Pharma in July was the second richest deal this year.
Eli Lilly is another major pharmaceutical company that has joined hands with a smaller biotech to advance the development of small molecules. It has signed an agreement with Massachusetts-based Superluminal Medicines to develop therapies that target G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a large family of cell surface proteins. These drugs are aimed at treating metabolic diseases like obesity and heart conditions. Superluminal can win up to $1.3 billion in upfront and milestone payments.
German pharmaceutical Bayer and California-based cancer therapeutics company Kumquat Biosciences have linked up to target KRAS mutations, which make up nearly 25% of all cancers. The plan is to develop and commercialize a KRAS G12D inhibitor, which Bayer will get the rights to, and in exchange, will pay Kumquat up to $1.3 billion.
Meanwhile, Irish company Jazz Pharmaceuticals, specializing in cancer care and neuroscience, has teamed up with Denmark-based Saniona to develop a particular small molecule. Saniona’s candidate SAN2355 is a Kv7.2/Kv7.3 activator in preclinical development for epilepsy and other potential indications. Jazz will secure the worldwide rights to develop the small molecule and will reward Saniona $42.5 million upfront and up to $192.5 million in milestone payments.
Finally, New York-based VantAI has scored a deal with Connecticut-based Halda Therapeutics. Both seek to discover RIPTAC medicines, an up-and-coming protein therapeutics technology. VantAI will leverage its Neo-1 foundation model and NeoLink proteomics platform to identify and validate target–effector pairs. These pairs – across both oncology and immunology – will feed directly into Halda’s RIPTAC development pipeline. The alliance is valued at more than $1 billion.
RNA therapies: sought after by biopharma in August
Chinese company Visirna Therapeutics is giving up the rights of its drug plozasiran over to French pharma giant Sanofi as it awaits FDA approval for the treatment of familial chylomicronemia syndrome, a rare, genetic metabolic disorder where the body cannot properly break down fats in the blood. The drug utilizes RNA interference to silence the expression of a gene, which codes for a protein linked to the disease. Sanofi will now develop and potentially commercialize the therapy in China. Visirna, which is owned by California-based RNA therapeutics company Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals, will score $130 million upfront and is eligible to receive up to $265 million in milestone payments.
Another deal in the RNA therapeutics space was between Danish giant Novo Nordisk – of Ozempic fame – and California-based Replicate Bioscience. With the help of Replicate’s self-replicating RNA technology – which brought about its lead rabies vaccine RBI-4000 – the two plan on creating RNA therapies to treat obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other cardiometabolic diseases. Replicate will receive research funding and could potentially nab up to $550 million, in addition to tiered royalties on future product sales.
Big pharmas want to tackle neurodegeneration and metabolic diseases
Novartis huddled up with Swedish biopharma BioArctic to target neurodegeneration. The pact tasks BioArctic to use its BrainTransporter technology to carry out drug discovery, and Novartis will be able to exercise its option to license any of the drug candidates that are generated. The Swedish company will receive $30 million upfront and can gain up to $772 million in milestones as part of this third collaboration between the two entities.
Finally, German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim has banded together with New Jersey-based inflammation-focused Palatin Technologies to develop treatments for vision loss caused by diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that affects one in three people with diabetes. The collaboration is centered on creating molecules that modulate the activity of melanocortin receptors, which play a role in how glucose is metabolized in the body. Palatin can reap up to €280 million ($328.3 million) in upfront and milestone payments.
Advancements in antimalarial drug discovery and development
