Siemens Healthineers, Vidac Pharma, Viking Therapeutics - Powerful movements

Siemens Healthineers - A strategic move

The medical technology company from Erlangen made a bold statement, though the planned transaction received little recognition on the stock market. To strengthen its market position and expand its portfolio, Siemens Healthineers is acquiring the diagnostics division of the Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA) business unit from the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis for USD 224 million. The transaction is expected to close this year.

Novartis, in turn, will retain AAA's radiotherapeutics business, which was acquired in 2017 for USD 3.9 billion to gain entry into the radiopharma category. AAA operates a network of cyclotrons in Europe that are used to produce the radioisotopes employed in products for both diagnostic and therapeutic clinical applications.

The analysts at mwb research welcomed the planned transaction, as this expansion would further strengthen the Company's market position. The target price was left at EUR 62.00 following the announcement, and the investment recommendation is "Buy". On the Reuters Refinitiv platform, the average price target of a total of 24 analysts is EUR 59.

Vidac Pharma - Tremendous potential

The new technology being developed by Vidac Pharma, a company founded in 2012 and led by Prof. Max Herzberg, one of the founding fathers of the Israeli life sciences industry, is groundbreaking. Vidac Pharma is researching drugs designed to help cancer patients by reversing the abnormal metabolism of cancer cells, thereby stopping the proliferation of these cells.

Vidac's lead product, VDA-1102, is in clinical Phase 2b studies for patients with actinic keratosis, an early form of skin cancer, and in a separate study for a cutaneous T-cell lymphoma indication.

However, the hope that could push Vidac shares higher is the molecule VDA-1275, which can be used for a broad spectrum of solid tumors. This has already proven to be a more powerful candidate in ongoing preclinical studies. Outstanding study results with VDA-1275 have been published in several mouse cancer and human cellular organoid models of solid tumors.

Following the study results, analysts at Sphene Capital gave Vidac Pharma's shares a target price of EUR 4.90 and a "Buy" rating. The current share price is EUR 0.25.

Viking Therapeutics with takeover fantasy

Drugs for the treatment of diabetes and obesity helped the pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk become the most valuable listed company in Europe, with a market capitalization of USD 454.93 billion. With a market capitalization of USD 7.26 billion, the California-based biotech company Viking Therapeutics is still a big step away, but its drug VK2735 could be the big breakthrough. While both Wegovy® from Novo Nordisk and Zepbound® from Eli Lilly require weekly injections, VK2735 only needs to be dosed once a month.

Since the beginning of the year, Viking shares have already gained more than 280% to USD 66.17, and according to Matt Higgins, CEO of RSE Ventures and investor in Viking Therapeutics, there seems to be no end in sight. As he explained in an interview with Yahoo Finance: "The addressable market is huge, around USD 150 million. Viking is working on two promising products: A monthly injection and a pill that has been very well tolerated in early studies."

Despite the significant share price gains, investors still see further potential for Viking Therapeutics. A possible catalyst could be a merger with a larger pharmaceutical company. Higgins estimates that Viking could be acquired at a takeover value of around USD 15 billion, which would correspond to twice the current market value. Another significant milestone is an upcoming conference in November, where Viking may present new data on its GLP-1 research.

Siemens Healthineers is expanding its portfolio by acquiring Novartis's diagnostics division. Viking Therapeutics and Vidac Pharma's promising preparations have multiplication potential.