Elisabet Cruces
Companies & Markets Content Manager
Clarivate Analytics
Barcelona, Spain

In the second quarter of the year, 112 active mergers and acquisitions (M&A) were reported in the life sciences sector by Cortellis Deals Intelligence, from Clarivate Analytics, with a total disclosed deal value of $55.6 billion. The second quarter pace mirrored the level of M&A activity during the same time period from 2013 or 2014, but it stopped the positive progression reached over the last two years. The volume was also approximately 25% less than the first quarter of 2017 (131 active M&A deals) with a total disclosed value of $73.8 billion (including the recent $30.2 billion purchase of Actelion by Johnson & Johnson).

Deal activity in 2nd Quarter from 2009 to 2017
Deal activity in the second quarter of 2017 reached a parallel value and size as 2011, which incorporated the $19.7 billion offer of Synthes by Johnson & Johnson, and 2013, which included the acquisition of Life Technologies by Thermo Fisher for $15.3 billion (Figure 1). Between April and June, the Becton, Dickinson (BD) $24.2 billion bid for C.R. Bard and the $7.2 billion offer of Thermo Fisher for its competitor Patheon reflected the strategic transactions occ ...