Biotech buyout spree ahead as values crumble

The Financial Times says that depressed values at biotech companies are pushing a groundswell of M&A moves at the world's Big Pharma companies. Buying a biotech company now looks a whole lot easier than structuring complicated licensing pacts. And it's starting to look significantly less expensive as well.

"There are multi-layers of M&A going on at the moment as the big pharma companies look for ways in which to get their share prices up--and these companies are deploying a wider range of strategies to do so than ever before," Richard Girling, global co-head of healthcare at Merrill Lynch, tells the FT.

The landscape in Europe is being littered with financial wreckage, and the influential FT notes that half of the biotech companies on the continent face "severe financial distress" over the next two years. Among the likely targets: Zeltia, Allergy Therapeutics, Vernalis and GPC Biotech.

- read the story [1] in the Financial Times

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