Biopharma Company Acquisitions
The pace is finally picking up – but will 2023 be a bumper year?
After a relatively slow couple of years on the buyout front, biopharma is picking up the pace. Sector M&A spending topped $80bn in the first half of the year, putting 2023 on track to be the busiest for takeovers since 2019.
For this analysis, only full company acquisitions of pure-play drug developers are included; sectors like medtech and digital health are excluded, as are licensing deals or partnerships.
A major caveat, and one that is particularly relevant this year, is that some of these transactions are not yet closed. Two large deals remain under FTC scrutiny: Pfizer’s $43bn bid for Seagen in early 2023 and Amgen’s proposed $28bn acquisition of Horizon, announced late last year.
Should the US antitrust watchdog scuttle these or other M&A moves, dealmaking activity could be seriously curtailed. The impact of the US drug price legislation, known as the IRA, is another potential dampener. Some industry watchers have suggested that the new law will cause biological products to be favoured over small molecules, and make multi-indication products, including those used in orphan settings, less attractive.
The impact of the US drug price legislation, known as the IRA, is another potential dampener.
