Biopharma’s bolt-on bonanza is set to continue

The $28bn that Horizon went for is undeniably a huge amount of money, but in the biopharma world this is still considered a bolt-on transaction. A relatively quiet couple of years for M&A shows that these tuck-in moves are exactly what large developers are focusing on.

The three transactions that emerged on day one of the JP Morgan healthcare conference fit this pattern. Rising interest rates will only make large deals harder to justify, even for companies flush with cash. Throw in the demerger trend that several big pharma names are following, and the chance of more megabuck deals happening any time soon dims even further.