Last week's news reviewed

Mergers and acquisition news during the past week has had a negative impact on the share prices of the buyers. In the case of Jordanian drugmaker Hikma Pharmaceuticals, which announced that it was reducing the price it will pay for Boehringer Ingelheim’s Roxane Laboratories generic drugs business due to expectations of much lower revenues than initially projected, Hikma’s shares plunged as much as 20% last Wednesday.

However, subsequent comments by the firm’s chief executive assuaged fears, and the stock closed the day just down 2.5% at £19.45. CEO Said Darwazah pointed out that “the fact we are paying $500 less is great news for us….What was a very good deal has become an even better one.” Meantime, despite the lower price for Roxane, family-owned Boehringer has been doing rather well from Hikma, which in 2014 also bought its Ben Venue manufacturing site and its Bedford Labs unit for $300 million.

Mylan was forced to defend its $9.9 billion (including debt) buy of Sweden Meda, which it has been pursuing for almost two years, after news of the deal saw its stock tumble nearly 20%, with analysts questioning whether Mylan was overpaying for the Swedish generics and over-the-counter medicines business.