Back to the downturn?

Compilenewborn

In December last year, AstraZeneca invested $39 billion in Alexion to enter the field of rare diseases.

The data shows that the 26 acquisitions in the last quarter were the lowest since 2016.

However, judging from the value of M&A transactions, last quarter M&A activity did not look as sluggish as it was when COVID-19 swept the world at the beginning of last year.

The second and third waves of the COVID-19 pandemic are raging around the world, but the new coronavirus is no longer the "culprit" preventing the deal.

The online format of this year's JP-Morgan medical conference may ease the pressure on biopharmaceutical companies to sign agreements.

But the main reason for the lack of M&A activity is more likely to be the sky-high valuations of potential targets, even taking into account the recent stock market adjustments.

However, this may be offset by the international community's crackdown on anti-competitive transactions; even if this does not completely curb mergers and acquisitions, it may also make it more difficult to pass.

In addition to acquisitions, this analysis also includes minority and majority share purchases, business unit and option purchases, all of which are summarized in "other transactions.

Among the acquisitions in the first quarter, the largest was Jazz's acquisition of GW Pharmaceuticals for a transaction price of US$7.

Pandion only went on the market in July last year and has an interesting but still early pipeline in terms of autoimmune diseases.

But there are always companies that need to replenish the sluggish pipeline.

Reference source: Quiet times return for biopharma takeouts