Barclays views Lilly, J&J as top acquirers in Abivax bid talk

Abivax SA

11/12/2025 15:09

** Barclays says speculation of takeover interest for French biotech firm Abivax ABVX.PA "should not be surprising" given the compelling clinical profile of its inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) drug obefazimod

** Barclays sees Eli Lilly LLY.N and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N as the "most logical" acquirers to better compete with AbbVie ABBV.N in IBD. Says Pfizer PFE.N could also be interested depending on its business development ambitions

** It sees Federal Trade Commission risk as low for Lilly; higher for J&J due to existing IBD assets

** Abivax rose by over 20% on Wednesday on market rumours about takeover interest from Eli Lilly. Both Abivax and Lilly declined to comment

** Based on deals worth over $2 billion since 2024, Barclays estimates theoretical acquisition price of around $9-10 billion, close to Abivax's current enterprise value

** Abivax shares have surged over 1,500% this year on positive ulcerative colitis drug data

** The stock was down 2% on Thursday, as of 1506 GMT

 (Reporting by Danilo Masoni, editing by Alun John)

 ((Danilo.Masoni@TR.com; Reuters Messaging: danilo.masoni.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))