Mirum views the retreat of large pharmaceutical companies from the rare disease space as a strategic opportunity. This creates a less competitive environment for acquisitions, allowing Mirum to acquire assets that are often overlooked by larger players and serve patient populations others leave behind.

After years of focusing on de-risked late-stage products, the M&A market is showing a renewed appetite for risk. Recent large deals for early-stage and platform companies signal a return to an era where buyers gamble on foundational science.

A successful acquisition strategy goes beyond the highest bid. It involves 'thinking like the molecule'—evaluating which buyer has the specific expertise, capabilities, and cultural alignment to best steward the asset's development. This reframes M&A from a financial transaction to a decision about the asset's future.

Contrary to the focus on large upfront payments, a smarter partnership strategy is to negotiate for a larger share of downstream success through royalties and milestones. This can yield far greater long-term returns if the product succeeds.

The company's business development strategy prioritizes acquiring early-stage, preclinical assets. This allows them to "fill the funnel" and take more "shots on goal" while avoiding costly downstream bidding wars for assets that have already completed Phase 2 development.

Mirum's acquisition strategy targets late-stage assets like berlovitug that can leverage its established global commercial operations. This approach maximizes efficiency, as new products fit into the existing sales structure supporting its current portfolio, especially in the adult hepatology space, making the acquisition highly strategic.

With patent cliffs looming and mature assets acquired, large pharmaceutical companies are increasingly paying billion-dollar prices for early-stage and even preclinical companies. This marks a significant strategic shift in M&A towards accepting higher risk for earlier innovation.

In its acquisition of Bluejay, Mirum employed a creative deal structure combining stock and cash. The stock component ensures Bluejay's shareholders remain invested in the asset's success, while sales milestones de-risk the acquisition for Mirum and allow the selling team to share in future upside, creating a win-win partnership.

Lacking internal research capabilities, Mirum's core business model is to in-license or acquire promising assets. This strategy, initiated in 2018 with assets from Shire, relies on their proven operational team to develop and maximize the value of external innovations.