Japanese law firm Nishimura & Asahi has represented private equity group MBK Partners on its acquisition of drugmaker Alinamin Pharmaceuticals for 350 billion yen ($2.17 billion) from PE giant Blackstone, which was advised by its longstanding firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.
Blackstone will re-invest a minority stake in Alinamin upon closing of the sale.
Blackstone acquired Alinamin in 2020 from Takeda Pharmaceutical in what it said was the largest healthcare transaction in Japan at the time.
Nishimura’s team on the deal was led by M&A partners Hiroshi Uchima, Junya Kokaji and Hudson Hamilton, and included finance partner Toshiyuki Nonaka, life sciences regulatory and compliance partner Alisa Inuzuka, and associate Kaori Furuya.
The Simpson Thacher team was led by transactions partner Anthony King, including associates Sonya Ho and Paul Kim. The team was supported by partners Étienne Renaudeau (antitrust), Makiko Harunari (banking), Steven Klar (Funds), Gregory Grogan (ECEB), and senior tax counsel Meredith Jones.
Japan has seen a lot of dealmaking in the pharma space recently. Earlier this year, Japan’s Asahi Kasei put in a $1.1 billion offer to buy Swedish drugmaker Calliditas Therapeutics, and Ono Pharmaceutical acquired cancer drug manufacturer Deciphera for $2.4 billion. Last year, Astellas Pharma acquired U.S. firm Iveric Bio for $5.9 billion.
