What’s behind the pharmaceutical sector’s M&A push

The passage of US tax reform in late 2017 led to speculation that merger-and-acquisition activity would soon surge among pharmaceutical companies, due in part to tax-cut benefits accruing to sellers. Indeed, that has come to pass: in the first half of 2018, there were 212 deals in the sector worth more than $200 billion, up from 151 such deals in the year-earlier period.1