Italian pharmaceutical company, Recordati, has confirmed that it’s weighing an acquisition offer from private equity manager, CVC, which is looking to solidify its controlling stake in the company.
If Recordati greenlights this deal, CVC would pay €52 ($60) per share for the remaining 48.2% of the former company’s shares available on the Italian Stock Exchange – potentially setting CVC back by €10.9bn ($12.6bn).
While Recordati noted it has “not yet reviewed the indication of interest within its corporate bodies” for this deal, the company already has strong ties with CVC, as the firm previously acquired a controlling stake in Recordati by buying 51.8% of its stock for €3.03bn in 2018.
Recordati, which celebrates its 100th birthday this year, is a global pharmaceutical group focused on primary and secondary care, as well as rare diseases within the areas of haematological oncology, endocrinology and metabolic health.
The pharma company has several portfolio products on the market, including its best-selling Cushing’s disease therapy, Isturisa (osilodrostat), for which an analyst consensus estimation by GlobalData projects sales of $967m in 2031.
Recordati also recently added the cold agglutinin disease (CAD) medicine, Enjaymo (sutimlimab), to its treatment arsenal. The Italian pharma acquired the global rights to this drug from Sanofi for $825m upfront in 2024.
Meanwhile, the company has also partnered with mRNA specialist Moderna to develop a propionic acidaemia therapy, mRNA-3927, which is currently in global Phase I/II trials.
Recordati’s financials are looking positive, as the company’s net revenue climbed 11.8% to €2.6bn in 2025. The strong performance of the company’s rare disease drugs primarily drove its growth in 2025, with revenues in this area ballooning by 29.7% compared with 2024.
CVC’s proposed takeover bid comes amid a flurry of pharma M&A deals announced over the past week, as big players in the sector look to fortify their pipelines in preparation for the looming patent expiries soon to hit their portfolios.
Today (27 March), Novartis announced it will be acquiring Excellergy for up to $3bn, thus absorbing the company’s half-life extended, high-affinity anti-IgE antibody called EXL-111, which is currently in Phase I clinical trials.
Earlier this week, MSD (Merck & Co) handed over $6.7bn to buy Terns Pharmaceuticals – a deal valuation that some analysts believe does not fully capture the potential of TERN-701, its BCR-ABL1 tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI).
On 24 March, Gilead made its first moves in the T-cell engager (TCE) market with its $2.2bn acquisition of Ouro Medicines, which could see the company team up with Galapagos to develop Ouro’s lead asset, gamgertamig.
