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Biotech merger volumes down but deals numbers booming

By Alexander Smith
July 24, 2009
advisors | biotechnology | Goldman Sachs | JP Morgan | mergers and acquisitions

An interesting snippet from the weekly Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard.

While the value of M&A deals in the biotech sector has fallen sharply year-on-year — largely because of the disproportionate impact of Roche’s takeover of Genentech last year — the number of deals done is actually up, by 15 percent.

Bristol-Myers Squibb’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Medarex has lifted the volume to $5.3 billion for year-to-date 2009.

That’s a 90 percent decrease from 2008 levels.

But if you exclude Roche’s $46.7 billion acquisition of Genentech, biotech M&A volume is down just 22 percent over 2008 levels.

More good news for JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs who top the advisor rankings in the sector.

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  • About Alexander

    "I am a Reuters columnist specialising in financial services -- particularly investment banking, M&A and corporate finance. I am based in London, but have lived and worked in Spain and South America. I have been a journalist and editor for almost 19 years and before moving into commentary at the beginning of 2009 I was the editor responsible for Reuters coverage of company news in Europe, Middle East and Africa."

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