More medical deals
While the current crisis has put an end to deals in many areas, there are still some areas where the chance of bargains and a belief in the long range have allowed the pace of acquisitions I to keep on track. The health area is a key one.
In recent weeks, there have been a number of reasonably significant deals.
Johnson & Johnson has made two purchases. First, it agreed to buy US-based breast implant maker Mentor for about $1.1 billion. Mentor is the leading makers of breast implants. #2 in that area is Allergan, the maker of Botox, and of a variety of cosmetic surgery, eye care, and specialty drugs. (Mentor, by the way, has a drug in the pipeline which will compete with Botox.)
J&J also agreed for over $500 million to buy Omrix Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in of hemostasis products, which control blood loss. That's a good fit with the company's wide variety of wound treatment products.
US generic maker King Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy US-based Alpharma, which makes pain medicines. THE deal is for $1.6 billion.
Swiss-based Roche agreed to buy US-based Memory Pharmaceuticals, which does Alzheimer's research, a $50 million deal. Roche is already working on possible Alzheimer's cures. Roche is still persisting in its offer to buy US biotech company Genentech. Over $43 billion is on the table.
Meanwhile, the acquisition of Barr Pharmaceuticals by generic drugmaker Teva is being completed. The deal was for 7.5 billion. Teva is selling seventeen duplicate drugs to competitor Watson Pharmaceuticals, in an attempt to avoid antitrust actions.
Other big deals that have finally closed are Eli Lilly's $6.5 billion takeover of ImClone and Daiichi Sankyo's $4.1 billion purchase of Ranbaxy.
Key drug/healthcare companies are sitting on a lot of cash and are looking for bargains. It's likely that the buying will continue.
