Stock Watch: Why Have Biotech Acquisitions Paused?

Halfway through 2021, the shortened 4 July working week seemed to prompt a retrospective lamentation on social media and in the press at the low number of acquisitions of biotech companies so far this year. The reduced appetite for biotech buyouts seems to be only indirectly associated with the pandemic, but is fundamentally a good sign for big pharmaceutical companies.

On the cusp of second-quarter earnings season, investors can expect to hear investment bank analysts ask the same question that they pose every quarter to the management of companies like...