A French pharmaceutical company has acquired two biotechs in two days — its third acquisition since October, bringing total potential spending to more than $3.7 billion in under nine months.
Ipsen, based in Paris, announced a deal for California-based Kartos Therapeutics on June 29, then announced a second deal for Swiss biotech Memo Therapeutics on July 1 — adding to an acquisition of ImCheck Therapeutics it closed in December.
Ipsen is far smaller than household names like Pfizer or Eli Lilly, with roughly $4.2 billion in sales last year .
But that hasn't stopped the company from buying up biotechs at an aggressive pace, even by its own standards.
How Ipsen is affording it
Ipsen's shopping spree is being funded largely by strong sales of its existing drugs. The company's sales grew 22.6 percent in the first quarter of 2026, reaching roughly $1.2 billion for the quarter .
Sales of its rare disease treatments more than doubled over the past year , and the company expects overall sales to grow more than 13 percent in 2026.
Ipsen sold off its consumer health division in 2022 to focus entirely on three areas — cancer, rare diseases and brain-related conditions.
Since then, it has grown mostly through acquisitions and licensing deals rather than its own research.
The buying spree has also followed two setbacks.
In December, a key clinical trial for an experimental treatment for an ultra-rare bone disease failed to show it worked .
Then in March, Ipsen pulled its cancer drug Tazverik from every market in the world after a safety review found it may increase the risk of secondary blood cancers when used in combination with two other drugs.
With one drug pulled and another program shut down, buying other companies' drugs has become central to how Ipsen is rebuilding its pipeline.
The company is scheduled to report its mid-year results on July 30 , which could show how much money it has left for more deals.
The three deals
The buying spree began in October, when Ipsen agreed to acquire ImCheck Therapeutics , a private French biotech.
ImCheck's shareholders received roughly $400 million at closing in December.
Ipsen was after ImCheck's experimental drug for acute myeloid leukemia, an aggressive blood cancer.
Early trial results showed the drug worked better than standard treatment, and in January the drug won a special FDA status meant to speed up its review.
On June 29, Ipsen made a far bigger bet: up to $1.75 billion for Kartos Therapeutics , based in Redwood City, California.
Ipsen will pay $450 million upfront, with Kartos' shareholders eligible for up to $1.3 billion more if the drug clears certain regulatory and sales goals.
The prize this time is navtemadlin, a pill designed to help patients with myelofibrosis, a rare blood cancer, who have not responded adequately to current standard treatment.
Ipsen says many patients stop responding to that drug. Between 50% and 75% of patients discontinue treatment within three years.
In an early trial of 19 patients, 42% experienced significant reduction in spleen size.
The drug is now being tested in a larger trial of more than 600 patients, with results expected in 2027 and a possible launch in 2028.
Then, two days later, on July 1, Ipsen announced its third deal — buying Memo Therapeutics , a Swiss biotech, in a deal that could ultimately be worth more than $800 million.
Memo's shareholders will get roughly $230 million upfront, with the rest tied to future milestones.
This deal targets potravitug , a first-of-its-kind drug for a serious infection that can strike kidney transplant patients and currently has no approved treatment.
In trials, more patients on the drug saw a sharp drop in virus levels than those on a placebo.
The drug also has fast-track status with the FDA, meant to speed up its path to approval.
What's next
Both the Kartos and Memo deals are expected to close by the end of September, pending routine approvals.
Ipsen says the Memo deal is already accounted for in its financial outlook for the year.
If all three deals go through as planned, Ipsen could end up spending more than $3.7 billion on acquisitions in under nine months — a pace that raises the question of how many more deals the company has room to make before its next earnings update on July 30.
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