March round-up of pharmaceutical & biotech M&A activity

The first quarter of 2018 ends quietly, despite the flurry of activity that kicked the year off. That is, with the notable exception of the Cigna-Express deal that was announced this month.

This enormous deal, worth around $67 billion, brings together insurance titans Cigna (NYSE: CI) and the USA's premiere pharmacy chain Express Scripts (NASDAQ: ESRX), wiping the latter's debt and setting up the former as a force to be reckoned with in the all-in-one insurance space.

We've also seen diverging attitudes toward partnership this month. Eisai (TYO: 4523) and Nichi-Iko (TYO: 4541) have aligned to support one another in the competitive generics market, while GSK (LSE: GSK) has spent $13 billion to sever Novartis (VTX: NOVN) from their joint venture with the firm.