European pharma companies splashed billions of dollars into the U.S. biopharma sector in a matter of days, but there are differing views on whether the activity represents the rise of a new buyer class or a quirk of timing.
Mid-sized European drugmakers have taken control of the M&A train. As April turned to May, a series of European pharma companies agreed to acquisitions of U.S. biotechs worth billions of dollars. The flurry of activity raised a question: Does the succession of deals represent a trend or a coincidence?
Kerem Can Alp, director of launch and commercial operations lead at Eversana, sees a trend. Alp set out his argument on LinkedIn after Chiesi Group agreed to a $1.9 billion takeover of KalVista Pharmaceuticals, Leo Pharma struck a deal to buy Replay for $50 million and Bloomberg broke news of Angelini Pharma’s now-confirmed $4.1 billion acquisition of Catalyst Pharmaceuticals. Between the Chiesi deal on April 29 and Angelini takeover on May 7, larger European drugmakers Bayer and UCB also bought U.S. biotechs.
The deals reflect the “structural vice” that European mid-caps are caught in, Alp told BioSpace via email. Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing is eroding the economics of the companies’ home markets, “directly linking European reference prices to U.S. negotiations and threatening the commercial logic of launches across the continent,” Alp said.
The proposed MFN models could stop companies from charging higher prices in the U.S. than in certain reference countries. Some companies have deferred launches in Europe to avoid tying their U.S. prices to overseas markets, and experts have warned that the medicines available in the two markets could diverge. The innovation pipeline into Europe is thinning, Alp said, with many drugs approved in the U.S. since 2025 yet to be submitted for approval in the region.
Facing those pressures, European companies find acquiring U.S. innovation is “the only viable growth engine left,” Alp said. The Eversana director said companies are targeting rare and specialty assets with defined patient populations, orphan pricing that holds regardless of MFN pressure and deal sizes too small to move the needle for Big Pharma.
Rhett Johnson, vice president at Charles River Associates, has a different take, telling BioSpace that it is “probably a coincidence” that several acquisitions of U.S. biotechs by European drugmakers were inked in quick succession. Johnson framed the recent activity in the context of a broader uptick in biopharma M&A and the strength of U.S. innovation.
“If European companies have money and they want to buy something, they’re probably going to find it in the U.S.,” Johnson said. “I think that, combined with the strong deal environment, probably explains the activity, as opposed to there being something specific about this particular deal size and the fact that they’re European companies making the purchases.”
Defining the deal parameters
The Chiesi and Angelini deals that bookended the flurry of M&A activity have the most in common. In both cases, family-owned Italian drugmakers bought U.S. biopharma companies to acquire approved rare disease drugs and associated commercial infrastructure. The deals position Chiesi and Angelini to generate sales in the U.S. and provide launchpads for introducing more drugs into the world’s biggest pharma market.
While Leo is another mid-sized European drugmaker, in its case owned by a foundation, the Replay deal has little in common with the KalVista and Catalyst takeovers. Leo is acquiring a preclinical program, not commercial products, and U.S. sales and marketing infrastructure.
While it predated the recent buyout flurry by weeks, Servier’s $2.5 billion acquisition of Day One Biopharmaceuticals has more in common with the KalVista and Catalyst takeovers. Buying Day One gave the foundation-owned Servier control of the cancer drug Ojemda. Day One built an 18-person sales force to engage the 200 accounts that make up most of its target market.
Chiesi and Servier both acquired companies that received FDA approval in the year preceding the deal, while Angelini bought a business that brought its latest drug to market in 2024. The timing of the deals supports Alp’s assertion that mid-sized European drugmakers are “watching launch curves” rather than striking deals in response to Phase 3 data.
The strategy is to “build or acquire specialized commercial infrastructure in rare or specialty disease, then systematically add U.S. assets that run through that machine,” Alp said. The pattern suggests that the next pool of takeover targets will be drawn from U.S. biotechs that have recently won FDA approval.
In recent months, the FDA has approved Denali Therapeutics’ Hunter syndrome drug, Omeros’ treatment for a hematopoietic stem cell transplant complication, two Vanda Pharmaceuticals products and Sentynl Therapeutics’ Menkes disease therapy. Sentynl is privately traded, while Denali, Omeros and Vanda have market caps of $3.2 billion, $1.1 billion and $384 million, respectively.
Traditionally, such companies partnered or sold programs before FDA approval. However, with more biotechs launching products themselves, there is a class of companies that are building out sales and marketing capabilities and generating evidence of commercial capabilities. Mid-sized European drugmakers could offer an exit route to biotechs in that position.
“For a rare disease asset with a sub-$2 billion peak-revenue profile, Big Pharma is often the wrong buyer. The real opportunity lies with European mid-caps, family-owned or foundation-controlled, with generational investment horizons,” Alp said. “The commercial narrative needs to be rebuilt around short- to mid-term revenue visibility, orphan market dynamics and the defensibility of pricing.”