Pharmaceutical sector M&A resurgence in 2018

After a quiet year in 2017 for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and generics, there was significant upturn in 2018.

The total number of M&A deal announcements tracked by The Pharma Letter in 2019 came to 111, compared with 101 in 2017, but still below the boom years of 130 in 2016 and 155 in 2015. Within this total, there were 26 deals with a potential value of over $1 billion, versus 15 in 2017.

A significant portion of the acquisitions announced in 2018, as usual, did not disclose financial terms. However, the Evaluate Group estimates that, for the first nine months of the year, the value of M&A activity had reached $124.7 billion, compared to just $79 billion in the whole of 2017 and $107.2 billion in 2016. For its part, Informa Pharma Intelligence has estimated that about $265 billion in M&A activity had taken place in biopharma during 2018, a rise of 26% on 2017.