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Biopharma M&A’s Busy Pace Expected To Continue During 2023’s Second Half

 
• By Joseph Haas

Analysts from PwC see multiple factors that should continue to drive bolt-on deals valued at $1bn or more, but heightened FTC scrutiny of large M&A may discourage bigger transactions.

M&A
Current trends suggest smaller bolt-on deals remain the order of the day • Source: Shutterstock

At the midpoint of 2023, biopharmaceutical merger-and-acquisition deals valued at $1bn or more are on a pace to demolish the levels seen annually from 2019 to 2022, and analysts from PwC predict more of that in the second half of the year. Just don’t expect a slew of big deals like the 13 March announcement that Pfizer Inc. is buying cancer antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist Seagen Inc. for $43bn.

That deal was the industry’s largest M&A transaction since a pair of mega-mergers that combined Bristol Myers Squibb Companyand Celgene Corporation as well as AbbVie Inc. and Allergan plc in 2019, but Roel van den Akker, a partner at PwC, said conditions remain poor for large mergers even though the current environment should prove favorable for acquisitions in the $1bn-$15bn range

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