PAUL D’SOUZA, ELISABET CRUCES
Pharmaceutical Analyst at Clarivate Analytics

As part of its ongoing coverage of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity in the life sciences sector, Cortellis Deals Intelligence registered 136 new M&As for the second quarter of 2019, a 3% increase from 132 in the same quarter of the previous year. However, total disclosed deal value declined by 7% to $105.3 billion from $113.7 billion (see Figure 1).

11 M&AS EACH WORTH IN EXCESS OF $0.5 BILLION WERE FORMED

There were 27 high-value new M&As worth in excess of $0.1 billion reported with 11 of these worth more than $0.5 million each; at a combined value of $99.9 billion, these represented 94.9% of the total disclosed figure of $105.3 billion (see Figure 2).

AbbVie led the M&A activity in the biopharmaceutical sector with its $63 billion approach for Allergan and a significant number of biopharma companies also expanded their portfolios in areas such as oncology, including the offers of Pfizer for Array of $11.4 billion and Merck & Co. for Peloton Therapeutics in exchange of $2.2 billion and $773 million for Tilos Therapeutics.