Update: 12 January 2011.
Life Science Analytics, the source of the statistics quoted in this entry, notes that the data refer to partnership deals, NOT mergers as the entry implies. The company asked that we post the following statement …
Please note the reference to top deal makers in this article reflects their participation in partnership deals, and not their involvement in Mergers and Acquisitions. In fact, Pfizer, for example, completed only 2 acquisitions in 2010 and was not involved in any mergers.
We regret the error. The original post follows.
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(Investor.gov)
The number of merger and acquisition (M&A) deals among pharmaceutical companies this year increased by 20 percent compared to 2009, according to statistics compiled by MedTRACK, a database of Life Science Analytics (LSA). The top five companies and number of reported M&A deals, all closely ranked at the top were …
- Pfizer, 51
- Sanofi-Aventis, 50
- Novartis, 49
- Roche, 46
- GlaxoSmithKline, 44
Bayer, Teva, AstraZenica, and Abbott Laboratories had between 20 and 31 deals this year. Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and Merck each had 18 deals.
Sarah Terry, president of LSA, attributes the increased number of merger deals to “continued back filling of pipelines, a drive into new markets with a large number of deals including companies in emerging markets, and further diversification into generics and biologics.”
Among the top therapy areas associated with these merger deals, oncology accounted for 24 percent, infectious diseases accounted for 18 percent, and central nervous system therapies had 14 percent.
In October, LSA said that U.S. companies had the largest number of new products in development, but LSA also noted that with the back filling of product pipelines, the pace of M&A deals should ease.
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Abbott Laboratories, maker of the glucose test strips that diabetics use to monitor their blood sugar, is issuing a recall of up to 359 million of the strips, after concerns that they may present false readings of low blood sugar.
Mergers in the health care industry at large, which includes players in the pharmaceutical, device, and health service markets, did increase by about 9% in 2010. However, large pharma players like Pfizer and Roche laid low, favoring smaller partnerships and asset purchases as they absorbed huge acquisitions made in 2009. See my recent post on Bizmology for more details on pharma M&A activity in 2010, as well as activity thus far in 2011: http://www.bizmology.com/2011/01/19/pharma-ma-activity-gains-momentum
Anne Law
Editor
Hoover’s, Inc.