JENNIFER BOGGS
Managing Editor, Clarivate Analytics

Coming off a slower-than-usual year in biopharma M&A activity – due largely to drug pricing pressures and regulatory uncertainty, coupled with a robust financing environment – many industry observers have tagged 2018 to be a busy year in acquisitions.

The first part of the year already has seen a handful of deals: Celgene Corp.’s $7 billion acquisition of San Diego-based Impact Biomedicines Inc., disclosed during the J.P Morgan Healthcare Conference , followed later in January by Summit, N.J.-based Celgene’s $9 billion bid for CAR T specialist Juno Therapeutics Inc.; Paris-based Sanofi SA’s buyouts of Bioverativ Inc. for $11.6 billion and Ablynx NV for $4.8 billion; and smaller deals by the likes of Seattle Genetics Inc., which bought Cascadian Therapeutics Inc. in a deal valued at $614 million.

Tax reform in the U.S. also is expected to unleash renewed vigor in dealmaking. In its earnings report in February, big biotech Amgen Inc. already indicated its interest in M&A, via an oblique statement by CEO Bob Bradway on the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based firm’s conference call: “We have felt for some time that there are pockets of ...