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The End Of Generics Mergers? Too Much Effort, No Reward!

 
• By John Hodgson

There has been $150bn worth of merger and acquisition activity since 2012 in the generic medicines arena, yet the sector is more fragmented than it was five years ago. CEOs and analysts from the generics sector believe that investor-propelled moves towards greater consolidation have been thwarted by the market agility of smaller companies. And now the cost of M&A has burdened major generics firms with debt.

Salmon run
Swimming against the current: is it worth trying to become a big fish in generics? • Source: Shutterstock

Each year since 2012 has seen record levels of mergers and acquisitions, with the peak of activity in 2015 (when deal values totalled $77bn) including the acquisition by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. of Actavis generics (Allergan PLC), Pfizer Inc. buying Hospira Inc. and Endo International PLC acquiring Par Pharmaceutical. Either side of that peak, Mylan NV acquired Abbott Laboratories Inc.'s US generics business and Meda AB. Despite this, according to figures from McKinsey & Company, the aggregate market share of the top five generic medicines companies in markets such as France, Germany, and the US has fallen between 2012 and 2016 (Table 1).

Speaking at the CEO and Analyst Panel of the annual Medicines for Europe/IGBA meeting in Lisbon on 16 June, McKinsey...

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