Biotech M&A from Sanofi (SNY) and Celgene (CELG) Deals of $20B Sparks Hot Trading in Sector

• XBI is up 5% to a breakout level, IBB up 2.88% as of 2P trading.
• bluebird bio (BLUE) another CAR-T leader soars over 12%.
• Broad rally with green screen especially with small caps.

Two major deals sparked a broad rally across the sector with almost every stock in the green. M&A is one of the major drivers of the sector and was a bit slow in 2017 so we could be seeing an active year for deal making especially with ample financing available. Shelf registrations as of 1/18 show financing robust especially with large cap cash holdings coming back from abroad.

• Sanofi (SNY) will acquire Bioverativ (BIVV) for $11.6B in a cash and debt deal which will be accretive for Sanofi. Bioverativ was a spin-out from Biogen (BIIB) just a year ago and strengthens the Sanofi position in rare diseases and haemophilia with revenues in the $1.1B range.
• Celgene (CELG) will pay $9B for Juno Therapeutics (JUNO) a major CAR-T player with an oncology pipeline utilizing cellular immunotherapy with potential 2019 sales of $3B.