This month, Amgen, a global pharmaceutical company, acquired Horizon Therapeutics, a bio company that develops treatments for rare diseases and autoimmune diseases, for $27.8 billion (approximately KRW 36.3 trillion), drawing attention from related industries.
Amgen signed the largest merger and acquisition (M&A) deal with Horizon this year in the global pharmaceutical bio sector. Established in 2005, Horizon owns Tepeza, a treatment for thyroid eye disease, and this year’s sales are expected to exceed 4.5 trillion won. Horizon, which sold only one well for rare diseases, has grown into a biotech with a market capitalization of over 30 trillion won in 17 years since its establishment.
An official from the bio industry commented on this M&A, “Horizon is a company that sells 12 types of products, including rare diseases and autoimmune diseases. Amgen seems to have determined that it can generate more profits in the future through the acquisition of Horizon.” Orphan drugs have faster clinical trials compared to other drugs, so the timing of launching them into the market can be a little faster. If the orphan drug clinical trial is completed up to phase 2, an acquisition deal is likely to occur.”
The official said, “Because it is not easy for bio ventures to bear clinical costs, it seems that there are more cases in which licensing is carried out beforehand.” There are many cases where the line is developed or clinical trials are conducted again with the funds secured.”
What is the message of Amgen’s Horizon M&A to K-Bio? “The value of the rare disease treatment market is very high. Currently, global pharmaceutical companies are prioritizing cancer, rare disease, and brain disease,” said a bio investment reviewer. It means a lot to us. For this reason, Amgen highly evaluated the value of Horizon because it has high value as a drug.”
“There are quite a few companies that have entered the clinical stage among new drug development companies for rare diseases in Korea,” he said. will,” he predicted.
Currently, K-Bio is having a difficult day facing internal and external bad news. Although LegoChem Bio recently signed a technology transfer contract with Amgen for an ADC platform worth 1.6 trillion won, the scale of technology exports by domestic biopharmaceutical companies this year was halved compared to last year.
In order for K-Bio to overcome these difficulties and take a step forward, it must walk the ‘road not taken by others’. Developing treatments for rare diseases takes a lot of money and time, but securing meaningful data at the clinical stage can lead to global L/O and joint development, and even M&A deals. We look forward to the day when a rare disease treatment developed by a domestic biotech will succeed in commercialization by receiving item permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).