Aticaprant

Johnson & Johnson is acquiring Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6 billion in the biggest biotech M&A transaction since 2023. The deal signals growing excitement in neuroscience after several large pharma companies walked away from the space in the last decade. If it closes, Intra-Cellular would be the latest in a string of multibillion-dollar neuroscience buyouts over the last couple years, including AbbVie’s $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel and Bristol Myers Squibb’s $14 billion takeover of Karuna at the end of 2023. “We’re seeing a lot of appetite for CNS and neuropsychiatry drugs,” Joseph Thome, an analyst at the investment banking firm TD Cowen, told Endpoints News on Monday. The trend is likely to continue because the market is there, he said. J&J would get a hold of Intra-Cellular’s Caplyta, which is approved for bipolar I and II depression as well as schizophrenia. Caplyta has peak sales potential of more than $5 billion, according to J&J. The company would also gain several earlier programs, including Phase 2 asset ITI-1284 for generalized anxiety disorder as well as Alzheimer’s disease-related psychosis and agitation. J&J will buy the Bedminster, NJ-based biotech for $132.00 per share in cash, according to a Monday release . Intra-Cellular CEO Sharon Mates attributed Caplyta’s success and the company’s pipeline to the “passion and dedication of our talented team” in the release. Mates said on Intra-Cellular’s most recent earnings call in October that Caplyta’s efficacy, safety and convenient dosing should make it a “top-of-mind choice for prescribers,” according to an AlphaSense transcript. Intra-Cellular’s assets are “clearly the type of criteria that we’ve stated consistently” around M&A strategy, J&J CEO Joaquin Duato said during a fireside talk inside the Westin at this year’s JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. He called it both a short-term growth driver with Caplyta’s approved indications and a longer-term growth play with hopes of expanding the use of the treatment and advancing other mid-stage pipeline programs. Caplyta is currently under FDA review for major depressive disorder, which affects around 21 million adults in the US each year. It is also being tested in Phase 3 trials in patients with bipolar I disorder with manic episodes or manic episodes with mixed features. Thome said the deal doesn’t come as a surprise, as J&J has expressed its interest in being a leader in the central nervous system space. Intra-Cellular’s positive readouts last year in adjunctive major depressive disorder “really cleaned up the story,” he said. The biotech’s portfolio will complement J&J’s own psychiatry offerings, including its esketamine spray Spravato and a late-stage KOR antagonist called aticaprant. Pfizer , Amgen , AstraZeneca , Bristol Myers Squibb and Eli Lilly are among the pharma companies that have backed out or pivoted away from neuroscience, a risky field with high rates of failure. AbbVie announced days ago that it would write off $3.5 billion following two mid-stage failures for emraclidine, the experimental schizophrenia drug it picked up in the Cerevel acquisition. Intra-Cellular’s shares $ITCI were up about 34% on Monday afternoon. Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that J&J was considering an acquisition of Intra-Cellular. Last year’s biggest buy was Vertex’s purchase of Alpine Immune Sciences for $4.9 billion. Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional reporting throughout.

Johnson & Johnson is considering an acquisition of CNS drugmaker Intra-Cellular Therapies, according to anonymous sources cited in a Bloomberg News report on Sunday. If J&J follows through with the possible deal, it would mark the largest biotech acquisition since 2023: Intra-Cellular has a market cap of about $10 billion. The largest deal in 2024 was Vertex’s acquisition of Alpine Immune Sciences for $4.9 billion. It was the first year in more than two decades without a biotech acquisition of $5 billion or larger. J&J and Intra-Cellular spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Many of the industry’s top executives, including companies’ business development leads, are in San Francisco for the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference. There has been a flurry of rumored deals in the last few days — GSK may buy IDRx for about $1 billion, and Eli Lilly may acquire Scorpion Therapeutics for up to $2.5 billion. Biogen also offered to buy Sage Therapeutics on Friday evening. Intra-Cellular and J&J executives are scheduled to present Monday morning at the conference on behalf of their companies. J&J was relatively active on the biopharma deal front last year, making a few bolt-on I&I acquisitions and buying ADC maker Ambrx Biopharma at last year’s conference . Last summer, Jefferies bankers ranked the pharma giant as the one with the most M&A firepower. It has $122 billion in cash/debt capacity. With Intra-Cellular, J&J would get its hands on the antipsychotic Caplyta, which is approved to treat schizophrenia and depressive episodes associated with bipolar depression. Caplyta’s sales jumped 39% to $175 million in the third quarter, compared to the same three months in 2023. Last month, the drugmaker also submitted Caplyta to the FDA for the adjunctive treatment of major depressive disorder. Intra-Cellular’s portfolio would add to J&J’s pipeline in the CNS category, which already includes the esketamine spray Spravato and a late-stage KOR antagonist called aticaprant. Back in 2023, J&J offloaded part of its neuroscience work to Rapport Therapeutics.