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Deal watch

Biopharma deal-making in 2015: changing the pharma landscape

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 15, pages 78–79 (2016)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 11 March 2016

This article has been updated

Biopharma deal-making in 2015 featured substantial consolidation and bigger transaction values than ever. Similar to 2014 (Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. 14, 84–85; 2015), immuno-oncology was one of the key drivers behind partnerships, and deals aimed at treating diabetes also had high values. Although the huge asset-swaps of 2014 were largely absent, 2015 witnessed the biggest takeover in the history of the industry: Pfizer's acquisition of Allergan for US$160 billion. This tax-motivated deal establishes the combined entity's tax domicile in Ireland, where Pfizer estimates a 7–8% reduction in corporate tax rate.

One primary difference in 2015 biopharma M&As was the return of large biotech deals (Table 1; Supplementary information S1 (figure)). AbbVie's $21 billion takeover of Pharmacyclics brought it the haematological cancer treatment ibrutinib (Imbruvica), a potential growth driver and replacement for the mega-blockbuster adalimumab (Humira) as patents expire and competition increases from other market entrants and biosimilars. Both Shire and Alexion bought rare disease assets in billion-dollar deals. Shire made two such acquisitions, Dyax and NPS, for a combined $11.8 billion, and announced a third major M&A in rare diseases, the $32 billion acquisition of Baxalta, in January 2016. Alexion paid $8.4 billion for Synageva BioPharma, which gained FDA approval in late 2015 for sebelipase alfa (Kanuma) for lysosomal acid lipase deficiency.

Table 1 Top 10 mergers and acquisitions of 2015
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Figure 1: Biopharma deal-making in 2015.

Change history

  • 11 March 2016

    Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 15, 78–79 (2016). The value of M&A deals in Q4 2015 was incorrectly stated as $689 billion. The correct value is $187 billion. The text and figure have been corrected accordingly.

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  1. Informa, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, 10017, New York, USA

    Amanda Micklus & Steven Muntner

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  1. Amanda Micklus
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Correspondence to Amanda Micklus.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information S1 (figure)

Distribution of the 26 M&A deals in 2015 worth ≥US$1 billion by target focus. (PDF 109 kb)

Supplementary information S2 (table)

Top 15 biopharma partnerships of 2015 by total deal value* (PDF 123 kb)

Supplementary information S3 (figure)

Partnership deal activity in 2015 by phase of development. (PDF 354 kb)

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Micklus, A., Muntner, S. Biopharma deal-making in 2015: changing the pharma landscape. Nat Rev Drug Discov 15, 78–79 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd.2016.10

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