Injectable toxins, poison pills SPRING is in the air, and drugs firms are in a frenzy of dealmaking. Since January there have been $93.2 billion-worth of mergers and takeovers in the industry, reckons Thomson Reuters, an information provider, the busiest start to a year since 2009. The drugs industry has accounted for 9% of 2014’s deals so far, up from 2% in the same period last year.Among the most recent developments, on April 20th the Sunday Times of London reported that Pfizer, an American drugs giant, had approached AstraZeneca, a British company, about a possible takeover. The next day brought news that Valeant, an American drugmaker, had teamed up with an activist investor to bid $46 billion for Allergan, whose products include breast implants and Botox anti-wrinkle treatments. The day after that Novartis, a Swiss drugs giant, said that it would transform its business by shuffling assets with two competitors, GlaxoSmithKline and Eli Lilly.The big branded-pharmaceuticals makers face a common set of opportunities and threats—chief among them rising demand from emerging markets, increasing stinginess in...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1jV8yQN
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