Mylan’s July announcement that it planned to acquire Abbott’s developed markets business looked like the start of a possible series of deals between big pharma and generics companies, but the survival of the transaction appeared in doubt following AbbVie’s decision to back out of...
And in the blue corner: Valeant
The great thing about takeover battles in the US is that they are so much more interesting than they are in the UK. In contrast to the polite press releases that accompanied Pfizer’s recent unsuccessful attempt to buy AstraZeneca, Valeant’s ongoing efforts to get...
Sandoz at the Novartis ‘Meet the Management’ event
Having agreed a major asset swap with GSK and hence simplified its business into three ‘powerhouse’ divisions, Novartis last week held its first ‘Meet the Management’ event for analysts and investors. This involved the top teams of each of the three divisions (and also...
Strength in numbers? Actavis announces an expanded management team
Last week, Actavis announced what its management team would look like following the completion of the Forest deal, which is expected to be some time towards the end of the year. The line-up contained some obvious choices and some surprises, with the overall impression...
Sun buys Ranbaxy and keeps the M&A merry-go-round turning
The announcement that Sun is to buy Ranbaxy from Daiichi Sankyo comes hot on the heels of Meda’s rejection of an approach by Mylan and Actavis’s successful takeover of Forest, illustrating the rapid pace at which the generic industry is changing shape – not...
Forest felled by Actavis
Actavis announced last week that it would pay an EV of $25bn to take control of Forest Labs, the equity component of which represents a 25% premium to Forest’s closing price the previous Friday. The deal will be 70% stock, 30% cash, with the...
2014: The year that the worm turns?
For years, pharma companies have bemoaned the difficult operating environment in Europe, gloomily predicting the ultimate collapse of the industry due to healthcare authorities that seemingly have little regard either for innovation or value for money, but focus relentlessly on cost alone. The sense...