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Mergers and acquisitions are a normal part of business, but 2023 has already presented many opportunities across the biotech industry. The M&A surge seems to be driven by two major transactions: the $6 billion sale of to and the $8 billion sale of to . While bigger firms like , , and have all initialized deals recently, here are three lesser-known acquisitions you may not know about.

Leap Therapeutics, Inc. and Flame Biosciences

has absorbed Flame Biosciences at $86 million. Their goal with this acquisition is to take control of Flame’s current product pipeline, which includes a —known simply as FL-301—and two other pre-clinical candidates. This goal will add a second gastro-cancer treatment to its lead asset, DKN-01, which recently received from the FDA. It will also increase LPTX’s combined cash balance to roughly $115 million, fully funding and .

The nearly 20 million shares of LPTX common stock and roughly 137,000 shares of newly designated Series X (non-voting) convertible preferred stock to existing Flame stockholders. Approval of the deal will then convert Series X holdings to 1,000 shares of LPTX common stock. Leap will also pay , if any, from post-merger transactions to Flame shareholders.

This was a smart strategy for Leap, as the stock has been in decline for the last year but has started to rebound. And while LPTX is still down 67.35% over the last 12 months, news of the acquisition seems to have helped shore up some value. It has already jumped more than 46% The share price is barely approaching penny territory, but earnings are still negative. A , however, certainly justifies its Buy rating.

BioNTech SE and InstaDeep

is a biotechnology company that develops immunotherapies for cancer and other infectious diseases. So what would they want with a GPU-accelerated deep computer learning company? BioNTech acquired in early January as part of a plan to strengthen its presence in the emerging and development field to compete with the likes of , who recently paid $21.5 million to partner with

Scooping up London-based InstaDeep is just the latest development in this relationship, as they have been collaborating since 2020, completing several dozen projects in the process. However, will add roughly 240 exceptional professionals to BioNTech’s roster and existing global infrastructure of research partners.

BioNTech will pay roughly $400 million for the deal to acquire all of InstaDeep’s remaining shares. The sale will also make InstaDeep shareholders eligible to receive —based on performance—of up to ~$247 million.

BioNTech’s acquisition of InstaDeep has not been as impactful on its stock price as other mergers since the top of the year. Of course, that might also have to do with the fact that BioNTech was only down 19% since the end of December and nearly 9% since last year.

More importantly, the stock is In addition, the stock is well within the 52-week range. While the 3.22 P/E is low, it is still more favorable than other post-merger ratios. Earnings are projected to grow, but it may be at least another year before they are in the green, but a helps justify its Moderate Buy rating.

Shockwave Medical and Neovasc Inc.

Cardiovascular medical device company also acquired smaller peer Neovasc Inc. earlier this month. share value soared—nearly 30%—on the news, which is now $27.65 and about to burst through the 52-week high. With a market cap of only $75.84 million, Shockwave’s purchase at $27.25 per share represents a nearly 25% premium at an enterprise value of roughly $100 million.

The deal will see Neovac shareholders receiving $47 million in deferred payments based on achieving regulatory milestones. These payments will likely be based on the success of Neovasc’s new angina treatment, .

Unfortunately, the news had the opposite effect on Shockwave stock. Shares fell about 4% following the announcement to close down about 10% that week. The good news is that SWAV is still up . SWAV has a fair upside of 37%, with at least 27% projected earnings growth. However, the stock gets a Moderate Buy because the $0.92 EPS is low, but an 80.70 P/E could mean shares are overpriced right now.