Life Science Today 081 – CSL + Vifor, Oracle + Cerner, Calliditas, Omega Funds
Originally Published as The Niche Podcast
Introduction
Welcome to The Niche Podcast – Your weekly rundown of the biotech, pharma, clinical research, and life science industries. I’m your host, Dr. Noah Goodson. This week, acquiring acquired, EHR acquisition, first approvals, and a new fund for the new year.
Disclaimer
The views expressed on The Niche Podcast are those of the host and guests. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of any organizations or companies with which they are affiliated.
CSL to purchase Vifor Pharma
A couple of weeks ago we highlighted Vifor Pharma’s double acquisition of Sanifit and Inositec in Europe to secure their calcification disorders pipeline. Now, Vifor themselves are getting acquired by the Australian life science company CSL Limited. CSL, the owners of both CSL Plasma and CSL Behring among other subsidiaries has tendered an $11.7B offer to purchase Vifor at $179.25/share. The acquisition adds Vifor’s pipeline of 12 products along with their existing therapies. For CSL this is reasonable therapeutic alignment, but is also a major expansion. Rather than scoping up several smaller targets they’ve decided to just perform a big acquisition to expand. However, with that said, I would not be surprised if CSL is generally making expansive moves and we see some other smaller aligned announcements in the next few months.
Rumors Turn True for EHR
This weekend rumors emerged that tech giant Oracle is set to buy the medical records company Cerner for close to $30B USD. Indeed, early Monday morning the deal was announced at $95/share and a $28.3B total deal.
Cerner is a major provider of Electronic Health Records (EHR) software that is a fundamental driver of how business gets done in the clinic. Everything needs to be entered to be charged and your health records aren’t just about you, they are really about how people get paid, from direct reimbursements to bonuses and what new wing a hospital should build. Beyond that the value around holding and managing healthcare data right now during a time of major healthcare shifts is absolutely astronomical. A company like Cerner with such deep market penetration has the ability to overlay numerous layers of the future digital medicine when empowered by Oracle’s technology pipeline around everything from data capture and management to natural language processing of voice data. In fact, if you go back to last week’s episode covering the Microsoft + Nuance merger you’ll see a clear line of competition delineated here as Oracle positions itself with market ownership to compete in similar (though not identical) healthcare spaces. Tech companies know there is insane value in the healthcare practice and clinical research space, but it has not been easy for them to gain robust market access. The acquisition of Cerner gives Oracle just that – a way in. These moves are a lot about guessing where the future of medical practice will go and positioning tech solutions to drive that future by overlaying added value like natural language processing in medical records and AI driven coding for reimbursement with existing contracts and partnerships. I think the question on everybody’s mind with Cerner off the market should who is trying to buy Epic and when will it happen. If reports are to be believe Epic may have been managing its own internal fires through some less-than-satisfactory pandemic handling. But, at the end of the day none of that really matters because of their massive market share, an Epic merger is definitely something to keep an eye on through 2022.
Calliditas Earns First Approval
Calliditas Therapeutics has earned their first FDA approval for a delayed-release treatment of proteinuria sold as TARPEYO. Immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN), sometimes call Berger’s disease, is a Kidney disorder that occurs when IgA builds up in the kidneys causing inflammation and hampering the organ’s function. As a rare progressive autoimmune disease, IgAN is a major problem driving 50% of patients to end stage renal disease. One of the impacts of this build up is proteinuria, or protein in the urine. TARPEYO was shown to reduce these symptoms 34% compared to the control group across a 9-month time period. While this is no miracle cure, this reduction could lead to significant increases in kidney longevity, reduce the need for dialysis and stop, or at least meaningfully delay, the need for a kidney transplant. As a delayed release capsule TARPEYO should provide good patient access and easy uptake. It also officially transitions Calliditas to a commercial stage company and driven shares up about 37%.
Omega’s New $650M Fund
Omega has invested more than $2B in life science companies since 2004 with 6 different funds. They’ve now closed their 7th at $650M. Their previous funds have seen 35 companies merged or acquired and 39 IPOs, including names heard on this show like Kronos, Sana, and Adagio. This latest fund spans stages from earliest to later-stage financing. Omega has a long and relatively successful track record and with this major infusion of capital I expect to see some larger ($50M+) investments in late stage, as well as their historic broad spread in the life sciences. Heading into 2022 there is still plenty of money for investments
Closing Credits
Thanks for joining me on The Niche Podcast; your weekly summary of top news in the biotech, pharma clinical research, and life science industries. You can learn more at thenichepod.com or find us on your favorite podcast app. Like, comment, subscribe, and most of all share with your friends. If you like what you hear, please rate and review, it really helps us. Once again, I’m Dr. Noah Goodson, I’ll see you next week.
Story References
CSL + Vifor
Oracle + Cerner
Calliditas
Omega
About the Show
The Niche Podcast brings you interviews with industry experts and top stories from last week in biotech, pharma, clinical research, and the life science industries. You can expect highlights about new technologies, biotech and pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions, news about the moves of venture capital and private equity, and how the stock market responds to IPOs. The Niche also tries to highlight trends around clinical research, including the evolving patterns that determine how drugs and therapies are developed, move through clinical trials, and become approved by regulatory agencies. It’s news, with a dash of perspective, focused on these Niche industries.