"Drugmakers on an acquisition spree have created a combined $24 billion for shareholders this month, gains that will encourage even more dealmaking," says "Bloomberg" in an article on mergers and acquisitions in the global pharmaceutical industry. "More money has already been earmarked for industry purchases so far this quarter than in any other in the last five years, and there’s still two months left."
"Teva, the $47 billion Israeli company that was one of last year’s worst-performing drug stocks, also has been left out of the dealmaking, leaving analysts and investors wondering for how long that will be the case," says "Bloomberg". It quotes CRT Capital Group LLC analyst Timothy Chiang as saying “Teva has been relatively quiet on the M&A front. They have said that they, too, at some point will come back into the M&A game though."
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE; LSE:PFZ) is in talks to acquire AstraZeneca plc (LSE; NYSE; OMX: AZN), GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE; LSE: GSK), Eli Lilly & Co. (NYSE: LLC) and Novartis AG (NYSE:NVS; LSE: NOV; SWX: NOVZ) agreed to a three-way swap of assets, and Canada's Valeant Pharmaceutical International Inc. (NYSE; TSX: VRX) has bid for Allergan Inc. (NYSE: AGN). "Bloomberg" quotes Sterne Agee Group Inc. as saying that Shire Plc (NYSE: SHP) may be in play now as Allergan searches for a way to avoid being acquired, and Mylan Inc. (Nasdaq: MYL) has attempted to negotiate a takeover of Sweden's Meda AB (OMX: MEDAA)
Chiang says that three main catalysts are driving the action: an increasingly popular tax inversion strategy, a desire of the industry leaders to become a one-stop shop for niche products and a hunger for growth, and cost-cutting opportunities while interest rates are still low.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on April 29, 2014
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