April round-up of pharma and biotech activity

With two deals worth more than $1 billion announced, another all-but-confirmed and two others worth at least $700 million, there was plenty of money being thrown around in mergers and acquisitions in April.

Germany-headquartered Fresenius Kabi was the busiest and biggest buyer, agreeing to acquire both Akorn, a USA-based manufacturer and marketer of prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, and the biosimilars business of German pharma major Merck KGaA (MRK: DE).

Others' attention may have been grabbed by Japanese drug major Astellas Pharma's 800 million euros ($856 million) deal to buy Ogeda, a privately-owned drug discovery company, or the news that the German generic drugmaker Stada Arzneimittel (SAZ: Xetra) is on the brink of accepting a takeover bid from Nidda Healthcare Holding AG, the acquiring company of private equity groups Bain Capital and Cinven.