September 2019 pharmaceutical M&A round-up

September is known as the back to school month, and biopharma dealmakers have clearly been back at their desks too, with some major acquisitions announced.

The biggest deal of the month belongs to Sumitomo Dainippon (TYO: 4506), the Japanese drugmaker, which is paying $3 billion to buy into the biopharma companies owned by Roivant Sciences, while perhaps the most ambitious in scope is US biotech Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: VRTX) splashing out $950 million in a bid to 'transform the treatment paradigm for type 1 diabetes'.

Certain big pharma companies will have been most interested to see Danish CNS specialist Lundbeck (LUND: CO) entering the anti-CGRP migraine therapy race with a $1.95 billion acquisition, an area with intensifying competition.