Upfront Briefing
Merck KGaA went shopping for the first time in a decade — $11.3B in cash for life-science tools maker Bio-Techne, its biggest swing since the 2015 Sigma-Aldrich haul, and a bet that the next leg of pharma growth is hiding in reagents and analytics rather than molecules.
Closer to home, Biogen is already taking the red pen to the pipeline it inherited from its $5.6B Apellis buy, pausing or scrapping most of the acquired research to keep the spotlight on Empaveli and Syfovre. And Ionis stayed busy — fresh off Tryngolza's severe-hypertriglyceridemia nod, it handed Recordati the ex-US keys to its Alexander disease drug zilganersen.
Tape Action
| Instrument |
Last close |
1D % |
YTD % |
| S&P 500 |
7,357.5 |
0.0% |
7.3% |
| Nasdaq 100 |
29,440.3 |
0.8% |
16.8% |
| Russell 2000 |
3,007.9 |
0.7% |
19.9% |
| Healthcare (XLV) |
155.6 |
1.5% |
0.1% |
| Biotech (XBI) |
151.6 |
1.3% |
24.7% |
| Nasdaq Biotech (NBI) |
6,337.2 |
0.9% |
11.0% |
| Clinical Trials (BBC) |
49.6 |
1.0% |
31.9% |
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- Sector: Healthcare outran a flat tape — Merck KGaA's $11.3B move on Bio-Techne reignited tools M&A, and a busy biopharma deal slate plus Ionis' Tryngolza approval kept buyers engaged; XLV +1.5%, XBI +1.3%.
- Macro: A rotation out of mega-cap tech set the tone — Apple (off ~6% on hardware price hikes) and Microsoft (~3%) dragged the Nasdaq to a fourth straight down day even after Micron's blowout memory guide, while the Dow tagged a fresh intraday high on healthcare, financials and industrials; May PCE landed in line.
- Market data: U.S. cash close Thursday, 25 June 2026.
The Big 3
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1
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Merck KGaA bags Bio-Techne for $11.3B
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Merck KGaA agreed to acquire Minneapolis life-science tools maker Bio-Techne (Nasdaq: TECH) for $73/share in cash, a ~$11.3B enterprise value and a 36% premium to the one-month VWAP.
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Why it matters: This is Merck KGaA's largest deal since the $17B Sigma-Aldrich buy in 2015. Bio-Techne throws off $1.2B+ of high-margin recurring revenue from reagents, antibodies and ProteinSimple analytics, and pushes Merck deeper into spatial biology, multi-omics and cell-and-gene workflows. Read it as the tools group's answer to a soft instruments cycle: buy durable consumables rather than wait for lab capex to thaw. The comp set — Danaher, Thermo, Revvity, Qiagen — re-rates on the print. The watch items are the antitrust path and a late-2026/early-2027 close; the ~€140M of synergies are back-end loaded to year three, so this is accretion by patience, not overnight.
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Source:
Fierce Pharma
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More:
PR Newswire;
Bio-Techne
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2
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Biogen guts most of the Apellis pipeline it just bought
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Six weeks after closing the ~$5.6B Apellis acquisition, Biogen paused or canceled most of the acquired research programs and laid off a small number of staff.
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Why it matters: Biogen paid up for near-term revenue, not pipeline breadth, so this is the predictable second act: keep spend on the two commercial assets that were the point — Empaveli in rare kidney disease and Syfovre in geographic atrophy — and cut the rest. The long-term story now rides the CVR (up to $4/share tied to Syfovre sales through 2031) and felzartamab, Biogen's own Phase 3 complement antibody in kidney disease. The read for acquirers is that "integrate then prune" is the default playbook on commercial-stage buys; the read for Biogen holders is tighter capital allocation against a thin 2027 launch calendar — and less long-tail value left in the model than the deal deck implied.
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Source:
Endpoints
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More:
Fierce Pharma
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3
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Ionis licenses zilganersen to Recordati ex-US
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Ionis granted Recordati exclusive rights to develop and commercialize zilganersen for Alexander disease outside the U.S., for $30M upfront plus milestones and tiered royalties into the mid-20s%; Ionis keeps the U.S. and plans to launch solo.
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Why it matters: The structure fits Ionis' build — own the high-value U.S. neurology franchise, rent the global infrastructure it doesn't have. Zilganersen hit its primary endpoint (gait-speed stabilization on the 10-meter walk test at week 61) and sits under FDA priority review with a 22 September PDUFA; approval would be Ionis' first independent neurology launch. But size the prize honestly: Ionis pegs the U.S. AxD population near 300 patients and peak sales just north of $100M, with William Blair modeling a $295M peak. So the $30M upfront and mid-20s% royalties are less about the dollars than the template — hand a partner the long-tail ex-US geographies, keep the U.S. optionality cheap. The risk is binary and concentrated: one tiny program riding a single PDUFA date.
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Source:
Fierce Biotech
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More:
Ionis;
Recordati
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Everything Else that broke
- Otsuka's centanafadine hit the primary endpoint in a Phase 3b ADHD-plus-anxiety study (n=315; AISRS −18.5 vs −12.6 on placebo), weeks ahead of a July 24 FDA decision. — Fierce Biotech
- Cassidy proposed a bill to rein in the 340B discount program. — STAT
- ABO-101 won EU orphan designation in primary hyperoxaluria. — PR
- Vaxart said a BARDA-related contract modification released additional funding to support continuation of its Phase 2b oral COVID vaccine study and next-step data analysis. — PR
- Ascendis previewed Week 104 pivotal TransCon CNP data in achondroplasia. — PR
- Taysha highlighted TSHA-102 Rett data with benefit through at least 12 months. — PR
- Eikon Therapeutics will join the Russell 3000 Index. — PR
- NRx publicly responded to statements in its Kadima dispute. — PR
- Idorsia closed an up to CHF 250M senior secured term loan and repaid its New Money Facility. — PR
- Hengrui's global biotech push got a fresh profile in BioCentury. — BioCentury
- Fulcrum launched a strategic review after permanently stopping pociredir development, including options that could include a sale or merger. — Reuters
- Valneva's AGM approved resolutions and named Dr. Gerd Zettlmeissl chair. — PR
Deal Flow
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BioBucks 2026 Deal Trackers • Updated weekly ⬇️
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M&A / BD&L
- Merck KGaA agreed to acquire Bio-Techne for $73 per share in cash, valuing the deal at about $11.3B (see The Big 3). — Fierce Pharma
- Boehringer Ingelheim committed up to $15M to use Immunai's single-cell AI platform to find T-cell targets across cancer and autoimmune disease — Immunai's third Big Pharma pact this year. — Fierce Biotech
- Biogen paused or canceled most acquired Apellis pipeline work after its $5.6B buyout (see The Big 3). — Biogen
- Recordati licensed Ionis' Alexander disease drug and took on regulatory and commercial responsibilities outside the U.S. (see The Big 3). — Fierce Biotech
VC / Private Financings
- Lycia Therapeutics raised an oversubscribed $75M Series D to push its LYTAC extracellular-protein degraders (LCA-0061 in food allergy, LCA-0321 in Graves') toward clinical proof-of-concept — co-led by Janus Henderson and Balyasny, joined by Adage, HBM Healthcare and OrbiMed. — BioSpace
- At least 13 West-based NewCos launched with Asian assets in 1H26. — BioCentury
IPOs / Follow-Ons
- Nuvation Bio priced an upsized $250M convertible senior notes offering. — PR
- uniQure closed an approximately $259M public offering at $45.50 per share. — BioWorld
Academic Corner - HPV vaccination was linked to a dramatic reduction in cervical cancer deaths. — Nature Medicine
- Plasma profiling identified metabolic determinants of cancer immunotherapy outcomes. — Nature Medicine
- Teclistamab-based induction showed an encouraging deep response rate in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. — Nature Medicine
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