The Health Care M&A Monthly: The Pharma Market Ignites –

$28 Billion Committed to Deals So Far This Year
Let the bolt-ons begin. As most industry observers agree, the age of pharmaceutical mega-mergers is over, for the foreseeable future. This year was to be the year of spin-offs and divestitures, coupled with many “smaller” deals of $10 billion to $20 billion as the pharma giants spent their huge cash reserves to restock their medicine cabinets following the patent cliffs of 2011 and 2012.
Even those predictions seemed premature. Until the middle of May, merger and acquisition activity in the pharmaceutical sector alternated between slow and sporadic, with the exception of the first week in February. That’s when Biogen Idec, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIIB) agreed to pay the Irish drug maker Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN) $3.25 billion for the 50% interest it didn’t already own in Tysabri, a promising treatment for multiple sclerosis, as well as future royalty payments.
Although Elan immediately became a takeover target, attracting an initial bid of $11.00 per share or $6.5 billion from Royalty Pharma AG, that multi-billion-dollar deal proved to be the exception rather than the rule for …….Want to read more? Click here for a free trial to The Health Care M&A Information Source and download the current issue today