Another makeover for Halozyme?

Halozyme might be about to undergo its second transformation, on Thursday making official a bid to acquire the German drug discovery services company Evotec for €2bn in cash; Evotec confirmed this, but has yet to accept or decline. Though a takeover at the valuation Halozyme is proposing would represent a near 100% premium to Evotec's share price a month ago, the target company's stock has fallen 80% from a high in late 2021. Meanwhile, Halozyme shares have risen threefold since 2019, when that company's in-house lead, PEGPH20, failed in phase 3. At that point Halozyme gave up trying to become a drug developer, and turned to licensing out its Enhanze hyaluronidase technology, which now lies behind subcutaneous formulations of Roche's Tecentriq, Bristol Myers Squibb's Opdivo and Johnson & Johnson/Genmab's Darzalex. However, Enhanze patents start to expire this year, and Halozyme is no longer the only SC game in town: Merck & Co has licensed hyaluronidase tech from South Korea's Alteogen for its SC form of Keytruda, and Alteogen recently struck a deal with Daiichi Sankyo to develop a SC version of Enhertu. Through Evotec Halozyme could draw a line under such distractions.