Sept. 28--Life sciences companies racked up deals at a blistering pace in the first half of this year, closing $275 billion worth of mergers and acquisitions, nearly four times as much as the same period a year earlier.
According to a recent tally by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the most active deal-makers were pharmaceutical companies (53 deals worth about $170 billion), followed by medical device companies (19 deals worth $73.5 billion) and biotechnology firms (21 deals worth $24.6 billion). The remaining deals were done by diagnostics companies and service firms.
The wheeling and dealing are far from over. "One should expect the trend to continue in the second half of 2015 as companies strive to gain larger market share and create shareholder value," the report said.
One of the larger deals in the first half was North Chicago-based AbbVie's purchase of Pharmacyclics for $20.8 billion. The acquisition gave AbbVie a presence in the multibillion-dollar market for treating blood cancers. Pharmacyclics sells Imbruvica, which treats a rare lymphoma and a form of leukemia.
Other large deals that closed during the first half of the year:
--Valeant Pharmaceuticals' acquisition of Salix Pharmaceuticals for $13.1 billion.
--Zimmer Holdings' acquisition of medical device maker Biomet for $13.4 billion.
--Mallinckrodt's acquisition of Ikaria, a privately held critical care company, for $2.3 billion.
Other deals were announced but have not closed. Those included the largest hostile takeover offer in the history of the pharmaceutical industry: generic drug maker Mylan's offer of $34 billion for Perrigo, a maker of generic drugstore-brand versions of Tylenol and Mucinex. Perrigo shareholders have until Nov. 13 to decide whether to accept the deal.
