Deals in Depth: April 2009
Executive Summary
Our monthly overview of dealmaking in the biopharmaceutical, medical device and in vitro diagnostics industries includes these highlights from February 2009: Pharmaceutical alliance money was weak: the biggest deal of the month was Novartis' $150mm license to Portola's Phase II cardio candidate elinogrel. In M&A, Lundbeck was on top with its takeover of spec pharma Ovation, expanding the European company's neurology drug portfolio in the US. Meanwhile, Beckman Coulter improved its position in the chemistry testing market by buying Olympus' diagnostic systems unit. And Medtronic made two major cardiovascular acquisitions: Ventor and CoreValve. Finally, pharmaceutical financing tripled three times since January to $1.6bn thanks to more than $1bn in public offerings including $684mm netted by BMS, which sold 15% of Mead Johnson through an IPO--the first in the Rx space in one year--as well as Vertex's $314mm FOPO.