France-based Servier has completed the acquisition of US-based Day One Biopharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: DAWN) via a tender offer at USD 21.50 per share, representing a total equity value of approximately USD 2.5 billion. The transaction consolidates Servier's rare cancer strategy around tovorafenib (Ojemda), an FDA-approved RAF kinase inhibitor for pediatric low-grade glioma, while adding two clinical-stage oncology assets to its pipeline.
The deal is structured as an all-cash acquisition with no disclosed milestone payments, contingent value rights, or equity components. Servier acquires Day One as a going concern, inheriting both its US commercial infrastructure and its existing contractual position as licensor under a July 2024 agreement with Ipsen, which holds exclusive ex-US commercialization rights to tovorafenib across all territories outside the United States, with Greater China carved out from the original license chain entirely. Under that pre-existing arrangement, Servier now receives tiered double-digit royalties beginning at mid-teens percent on ex-US net sales, plus up to approximately USD 350 million in launch and sales milestones from Ipsen. Servier retains global development authority over tovorafenib, excluding Greater China.
Tovorafenib is a once-weekly oral type II RAF inhibitor that received an accelerated US FDA approval for relapsed or refractory pediatric low-grade glioma, the most common pediatric brain tumor, in 2024. The compound targets BRAF alterations — including fusions and point mutations such as BRAF V600E — which are present in the majority of pediatric low-grade glioma cases. Unlike earlier-generation BRAF inhibitors developed for adult melanoma, tovorafenib was designed to address the distinct molecular architecture of pediatric gliomas, where BRAF fusions predominate over point mutations and where paradoxical ERK activation from standard BRAF inhibitors presents a clinical liability. Day One's clinical program demonstrated durable responses in a heavily pre-treated population, supporting the FDA approval and the asset's positioning as a backbone therapy in this indication.