| Mergers and acquisitions are a critical part of the constantly evolving pharma landscape. Claudia Heinen of BearingPoint recognises that the complexity of successfully integrating two or more companies must be clarified for corporate leaders to achieve their goals.
For small- to mid-sized enterprises, the goal of growing organically and profitably in this environment is still an aspiration – but M&A is currently king of business growth. This tier of pharma remains focused on high quality research in one or two therapeutic areas and looks for partners to help with later-stage activities such as development or sales. Meanwhile, for a variety of reasons, the largest global players’ internal R&D efforts are not as effective as they’d hoped. In fact, even as major companies like Pfizer are seeking to improve by concentrating R&D in fewer sites, they are finding it equally attractive to buy smaller companies with promising pipelines as to invest in innovation within their own walls.
These M&A objectives on both sides have led to recent acquisitions and take-overs such as Bayer’s purchase of Schering, Merck KGAA (Germany) buying Serono, and Nycomed of Denmark buying Altana Pharma in an attempt to close the gap to large pharma. In a recent article in BusinessWeek it was pointed out that “in 2006 a record 1,009 biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies were snatched up for a total of US$135.9 billion, according to M&A tracker Dealogic. That’s up from 923 deals in 2005 and 740 in 2004... 13 acquisitions worth US$1.2 billion are already in the can for 2007” (1). |
