Bristol-Myers and AbbVie acquisitions stars of 2019 biopharma M&A activity

Ranging from big pharma to small biotech, there was a great deal of global merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in 2019. The Pharma Letter’s annual tally of such deals in the biopharma sector, which excludes diagnostics and devices, saw a total of 108 announced, marginally down from the 111 in 2018.

In terms of both company buys and asset licensing, 2019 saw blockbuster deals, particularly in the currently attractive cell and gene therapy space. Notable were the buys of Audentes, The Medicines Company and Spark.

The 2019 table of M&A deals shows that there were 25 with a value of over $1 billion, versus 27 in 2018. The biggest to be announced in 2019 was Bristol-Myers Squibb’s (NYSE: BMY) $74 billion bid for Celgene. This was delayed time after time due to anti-trust issues, and finally completed in November, and included what the US Federal Trade Commission described as the biggest ever divestment requirement, that of having to sell rights to Otezla (apremilast) for $13.4 billion to Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN).