Article preview from IN VIVO June 30, 2009
Highlights from the Q1 2009 review of pharmaceutical and biotechnology dealmaking: With 57 transactions raising $1.09 billion, financing activity for Q1 2009 showed a 137% increase over Q4 2008's total. The largest deal was an initial public offering--Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. sold off 15% of Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. for $684 million-the first since Bioheart Inc.'s February 2008 IPO. In M&A, Big Pharma mega-mergers was the big story as two major players--Wyeth and Schering-Plough--were scooped up by Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc., respectively, in deals together valued at $109 billion, making up 96% of the Q1 M&A dollar volume. Read on...
Article preview from IN VIVO June 30, 2009
A look at financing, M&A, and alliance activity January–March 2009
In this issue, we present another installment of our quarterly review of pharmaceutical/biotechnology dealmaking—for the first quarter of 2009. Our data come from Elsevier's Strategic Transactions.
Financings
A total of 80 financings completed during the first quarter of 2009 brought in $2.58 billion, a decline of 10% from the same time last year ($2.9 billion) but an increase of 137% over last quarter (57 financings raising $1.09 billion).
The largest deal in Q1 was an IPO—the first one in the pharma market since cardiovascular therapeutics company Bioheart Inc. completed its initial public offering a year ago (February 2008), only netting $4.3 million for selling shares at a low $5.25 apiece instead of the $16 it had once proposed. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. sold off 15% of its equity in nutraceuticals company Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. in an IPO netting an incredible $684 million. BMS announced plans in late 2007 to become a pure-play biopharma and to reach that goal it has been divesting assets—including its ConvaTec Inc. wound care unit for $4.1 billion and its contrast agents business (now called Lantheus Medical Imaging Inc.) for $525 million. Keeping an 85% stake in Mead instead of out-right selling the company enables BMS to distance itself and yet still reap the rewards.
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