The drug industry's biggest business meeting of the year, the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, kicked off with a bang Jan. 7, with deal news that set an animated tone for the four-day meeting.
On the opening day, Eli Lilly & Co. announced an $8bn acquisition of genetics-based cancer company Loxo Oncology Inc.. That announcement, coming just days after Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. unveiled a $74bn merger with Celgene Corp. and weeks after GlaxoSmithKline PLC moved on Tesaro Inc. for $5.1bn, triggered a feeling of optimism that 2019 will be a big year for deal-making – with plenty of speculation about what that will look like