Acquisition · Pharma
Ono agrees to buy US cancer drugmaker Deciphera for $2.4 billion
- Buyer
- Ono Pharmaceutical (Osaka)
- Target
- Deciphera Pharmaceuticals, Waltham, Massachusetts
- Value
- $2.4B
- Status
- Completed in June 2024.
- Date
- 2024-04-29
Ono Pharmaceutical agreed to acquire Nasdaq-listed Deciphera for $25.60 a share in cash, valuing it at about $2.4 billion. Deciphera sells Qinlock, a KIT inhibitor for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors, and had vimseltinib under regulatory review. Ono completed the tender offer and merger in June 2024, ahead of its original schedule.
Why it matters
It is Ono's largest-ever acquisition and gives it its own US commercial oncology business.
The deal
Ono agreed on April 29, 2024 (Japan time) to pay $25.60 a share in cash for Deciphera, based in Waltham, Massachusetts. That was a 74.7% premium to the April 26 close and an equity value of about $2.4 billion. BofA Securities and Greenberg Traurig advised Ono. The tender offer and merger closed in June 2024, ahead of the third-quarter target.
The drugs
Deciphera sells Qinlock, a treatment for advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumors approved in more than 40 countries. Its second drug, vimseltinib, won FDA approval as Romvimza on February 14, 2025, for a rare joint tumor called tenosynovial giant cell tumor.
Why Ono wanted it
Ono, best known as the Japanese partner on the cancer drug Opdivo, wanted its own sales teams in the US and Europe. Deciphera already had them, ready to sell new drugs as Opdivo's patent protection runs out.
Sources
Kakehashi M&A News home
