PAUL D’SOUZA
Pharmaceutical Analyst, Clarivate Analytics

TRENDS IN M&A VOLUME AND DEAL VALUE

During the third quarter of 2018, Cortellis Deals Intelligence registered 131 new mergers and acquisitions (M&A) with a total disclosed deal value of $16 billion as part of its ongoing coverage of M&A activity in the life sciences sector compared to 113 and $104.6 billion in the second quarter and 124 and $30.1 billion in the third quarter of the 2017 (See Figure 1). 

The reported deal dollars in the third quarter of 2018 were helped by Medtronic’s $1.64 billion approach for medical device firm Mazor Robotics as it looks to expand into robotic-assisted spinal surgery.

HIGH-VALUE M&AS WORTH $0.5B OR MORE

We tracked 34 high-value new M&As worth in excess of $100 million during the third quarter of 2018 with 10 worth more than $500 million (nine of which were device/therapeutic) (See Figure 2). 

The largest M&As focused on devices for musculoskeletal therapy, including Mazor’s X Robotic Guidance System (Mazor X) and its Renaissance Surgical-Guidance ...