Biopharma takeovers show quantity, if not quality

With the coronavirus pandemic turning 2020 into a year unlike any other investors have piled into biopharma, helping the sector avoid the spreading doom and gloom. One area not helped by this surge of sentiment, however, is mergers and acquisitions.

The second quarter continued the pattern of the first: acquisitions are happening in only slightly reduced numbers, Evaluate Vantage data show, but with no large deals the combined M&A value has haemorrhaged. It is worth asking whether Covid-19-induced apathy on the one hand and spiralling asset prices on the other have put some aspects of M&A on hold.