Highlights of pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions during 2001

After the year started with rumblings from industry observers aboutthe likelihood of increased consolidation in Europe, merger and acquisition activity during 2001 was dominated by deals involving US pharmaceutical giants such as Johnson & Johnson, with its link-up with Alza Corp, and Bristol-Myers Squibb's purchase of DuPont Pharmaceuticals.

Nevertheless, apart from Abbott Laboratories' acquisition of Knoll from BASF and Shire's prolonged purchase of BioChem Pharma, few major deals took place. Indeed, the much-touted wave of consolidation that was expected to hit the Japanese drug industry did not really materialize, notably with Taisho Pharmaceutical and Tanabe Seiyaku calling off their proposed merger (Marketletter December 10, 2001).

However, the biotechnology industry is making further steps towards consolidation, as still-high valuations appear to be scaring off the major drugmakers. The number of biotechnology firms that have combined operations is set to grow following the recently-announced merger of Millennium Pharmaceuticals and COR Therapeutics (Marketletter December 17, 2001). *t --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Company Partner Deal value ($) Abbott Laboratories (USA) acquired Knoll from BASF (Germany) 6.90 billion Abbott Laboratories (USA) bought stake in Millennium (USA) 250 million Abbott Laboratories (USA) acquired Vysis (USA) 355 million Almirall Prodesfarma (Spain) Prasfarma (Spain) 12.3 million Almirall Prodesfarma (Spain) acquired Pharmafarm (France) from Halisol and GDS Undisclosed Alpharma (USA) acquired generic oral solid-dose business of FHFaulding from Mayne Nickless (Australia) 660 million Amersham (UK) sold stake in Nycomed Holding (Norway) 178.2 million Amersham Pharmacia Biotech acquired Dan Process (Denmark) Undisclosed (UK/Sweden) from Pantax Andrx (USA) bought Armstrong Pharmaceuticals 18 million from Celltech (UK) Antigenics (USA) acquired Aronex Pharma (USA) Undisclosed ArQule (USA) merged with Camitro Corp (USA) 95 million AstraZeneca (UK) sold dental unit to Dentsply (USA) 136.5 million AstraZeneca (UK) bought controlling interest 18.5 million in Astra-IDL (India) Atrium Biotech (Canada) acquired Unipex (France) 13.2 million Aventis (France/Germany) sold 40% stake in R-P (India) 33.6 million to Nicholas Piramal (India) Axcan Pharma (Canada) acquired Laboratoires Enteris (France) 22 million Barr Laboratories (USA) acquired Duramed (USA) 700 million Bausch & Lomb (USA) acquired ophthalmic business 49 million of Pharmos Corp (Israel) Baxter International (USA) bought Asta Medica oncology unit from 463.1 million Degussa (Germany) Bayer (Germany) sold Sybron Biochemicals (USA) to Undisclosed Novozymes (Denmark) Bayer (Germany) acquired Aventis CropScience from 6.60 billion Aventis (France/Germany) and Schering AG (Germany) BioFocus (UK) acquired Cambridge Drug 39.6 million Discovery Holdings (UK) Bioglan (UK) acquired skin care division of Hexal 24.5 million (Germany) bioMerieux (France) acquired in vitro diagnostics from Undisclosed Organon Teknika (Netherlands) Blue Dot Capital (UK) acquired PDT assets of Scotia (UK) Undisclosed Bristol-Myers Squibb (USA) sold Clairol to Procter & Gamble (USA) 4.95 billion Bristol-Myers Squibb (USA) acquired near-20% stake in ImClone 1 billion Systems (OK) Bristol-Myers Squibb (USA) bought DuPont Pharmaceuticals (USA) 7.80 billion Byk Gulden (Germany) sold 50% stake in German JV to partner 99.4 million Lundbeck (Denmark) Cardion (Germany) acquired Tolerance Pharmaceuticals (USA) Undisclosed Carter-Wallace (USA) taken over by syndicate of equity 408 million firms (USA) Celera Genomics (USA) acquired Axys Pharmaceuticals (USA) 174 million Cellegy (USA) acquired Vaxis Therapeutics (Canada) 4 million Cell Genesys (USA) acquired Calydon (USA) 20 million Celltech (UK) bought Thiemann (Germany) from DLJ 44.6 million and Biocodex (France) CeNeS Pharma (UK) acquired MDC to create Cambridge Undisclosed Cognition (UK) Cephalon (USA) bought Group Lafon (France) 450 million Covance Biotechnology bought by Akzo Nobel unit 190 million Services (USA) Diosynth (Netherlands) Dr Reddy's Las (India) merged with American Remedies (India) Undisclosed Eli Lilly (USA) acquired a stake in Isis Pharma (USA) 75 million Eurogene (UK) merged with Oy Quattrogene (Finland) Undisclosed FH Faulding (Australia) sold Soltec to Connetics Corp (USA) 15.9 million Fournier (France) acquired stake in Genfit (France) Undisclosed Genzyme Corp (USA) bought Novazyme Pharma (USA) 137.5 million GlaxoSmithKline (UK) sold Affymax (USA) to venture 400 million capitalist group ICN Pharmaceuticals (USA) acquired medical business of MAII 14.4 million Holdings (USA) Inhale Therapeutics (USA) acquired Bradford Particle Design (UK) 200 million Inhale Therapeutics (USA) acquired Shearwater Corp (USA) 191 million IVAX Corp (USA) bought Netpharma Scandinavia (Sweden) Undisclosed IVAX Corp (USA) acquired Laboratorios Chile (Chile) 395 million Johnson & Johnson (USA) acquired Alza Corp (USA) 10.2 billion Johnson & Johnson (USA) acquired Heartport (USA) 81 million Johnson & Johnson (USA) acquired diabetes business of Inverness 1.30 billion Medical Technology (USA) King Pharmaceuticals (USA) acquired products from Bristol-Myers 285 million Squibb (USA) KS Biomedix (UK) bought Avicenna (Canada) 58.6 million Lek (Slovenia) bought near-90% stake in Argon Undisclosed (Poland) LION Bioscience (Germany) acquired GMD (Germany) 7.4 million LION Bioscience (Germany) acquired Trega Biosciences (USA) 35 million Max India (India) acquired 75% stake in ICIC (Costa Rica) 6.5 million Medtronic (USA) acquired MiniMed and Medical Research 3.70 billion Group (USA) MediGene (Germany) acquired NeuroVir Therapeutics (USA) Undisclosed Menarini (Italy) acquired 73% of IE Ulagay (Turkey) Undisclosed Merck KGaA (Germany) acquired Mohan generics unit from Undisclosed Kyowa Hakko Kogyo (Japan) Merck KGaA (Germany) sold its 43% stake in Pharmaceutical $359 million Resources (USA) Merck & Co (USA) bought Rosetta Inpharmatics (USA) 620 million MitoKor (USA) acquired Apollo Biopharmaceutics Undisclosed (USA) Miza (Canada) acquired Antigen (Ireland) Undisclosed Novartis (Switzerland) acquired Lagap (UK) from Adcock Ingram Undisclosed (South Africa) Novartis (Switzerland) acquired 20% voting stake in Roche 2.79 billion (Switzerland) from BZ Novo Nordisk (Denmark) acquired majority stake in Biobras 31.4 million (Brazil) Orchid Bioscience (USA) acquired Lifecodes Corp (USA) Undisclosed OSI Pharmaceuticals (USA) acquired oncology assets of Gilead 160 million Sciences (USA) Pharmacopeia (USA) acquired Eos Biotechnology (USA) 197 million PowderJect (UK) acquired SBL Vaccin (Sweden) 71.9 million Ranbaxy (India) sold 50% stake in JV to partner 1.7 million Eli Lilly (USA) Sanofi-Synthelabo (France) bought a stake in Atrix Labs (USA) 15 million Sanofi-Synthelabo (France) sold Porges unit to Mentor Corp (USA) 32 million Sanofi-Synthelabo (France) sold Ela Medical to Snia Group (Italy) 130 million Schering AG (Germany) acquired 24.5% of Molypharma (Spain) Undisclosed Shantha Biotechnics acquired East West Labs (USA) Undisclosed (India/Oman) Shire Pharmaceuticals (UK) merged with BioChem Pharma (Canada) 4.00 billion SkyePharma (UK) acquired 40.2% stake in RTP Pharma 20 million (Canada) SkyePharma (UK) acquired 15.3% holding in Valentis (USA) 20 million Sinclair Pharma (UK) acquired Propharma (Italy) Undisclosed Sangamo Biosciences (USA) acquired Gendaq (UK) 40 million Sequenom (USA) merged with Gemini Genomics (UK) 230 million Sulzer Medica (Switzerland) bought IntraTherapeutics (USA) 145 million Vertex Pharmaceuticals (USA) merged with Aurora Biosciences (USA) 592 million Viragen (USA) acquired BioNative AB (Sweden) Undisclosed Virco (Belgium) merged with Tibotec (Belgium) Undisclosed Wockhardt (India) acquired 50% stake in JV held by Undisclosed Rhein Biotech (Germany) Welfide Corp (Japan) merged with Mitsubishi-Tokyo Undisclosed Pharmaceuticals (Japan) Xenova Group (UK) acquired Cantab Pharmaceuticals (UK) 179.7 million Zydus Cadila (India) acquired Asta Medica's 27.7% stake 31.9 million in German Remedies (India) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $t