M&A Cancer Activity

Two of the world’s biggest drugmakers struck multibillion-dollar deals on Monday aimed at bolstering their lineups in the fiercely competitive cancer-drugs market.Merck & Co. said it would acquire ArQule Inc. for about $2.7 billion, paying a 107% premium in a bid to diversify its cancer treatments beyond top-selling drug Keytruda. Meanwhile, Sanofi SA said it would spend $2.5 billion, a 172% premium, to acquire Synthorx Inc. in the French drugmaker’s own effort to catch up with rivals in the field of oncology.Both deals reflect the industry’s intense pursuit of new products to sell in one of the world’s biggest and fastest-growing prescription-drug segments. The $123 billion world-wide cancer-drugs market is expected to almost double by 2024, according to market-research firm EvaluatePharma.Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. recently closed on its $74 billion acquisition of rival Celgene Corp. to create a cancer-drugs powerhouse. Pfizer Inc., which has positioned itself as a company focused on cancer, bought Array BioPharma for $10.6 billion this summer. And Eli Lilly & Co. acquired Loxo Oncology for about $8 billion earlier this year.

Making the segment even more attractive is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s willingness to approve new cancer drugs with smaller, faster and less-expensive clinical trials. And companies have found that health plans will pay for cancer drugs, even at prices that often top $100,000 for a year’s treatment