AbbVie makes second deal in a week, betting $8.7B in cash on CNS biotech Cerevel 

Ab­b­Vie said Wednes­day evening it plans to pay $8.7 bil­lion to ac­quire neu­ro­science drug­mak­er Cerev­el Ther­a­peu­tics in a deal that comes just six days af­ter the Chica­go-area Big Phar­ma said it would pay $10.1 bil­lion for Im­muno­Gen.

Ab­b­Vie had on­ly made one M&A deal this year be­fore an­nounc­ing the Im­muno­Gen ac­qui­si­tion, mak­ing a small $110 mil­lion up­front pay­ment for a Parkin­son’s dis­ease start­up. Now, it has made the third- and fourth-largest bio­phar­ma M&A deals of 2023 so far.

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