Pharma deals reignite M&A boom

In our weekly expert view piece, Michael Jewell, healthcare partner at Cavendish Corporate Finance, examines a recent resurgence in M&A and questions whether it signals more activity later in 2016.

A succession of big pharma M&A deals in April, with Sanofi, AbbVie and Abbott bidding for Medivation, Stemcentrx and St Jude respectively, marked a surge of transactions in the sector totalling $45bn, following a pause in dealmaking in the first quarter of the year.

This resurgence of M&A activity in healthcare is fuelling hopes of a sustained boom. As we look to the latter half of the year, extrapolating from recent transactions and underlying drivers, 2016 looks set to continue to be a promising year.