Top 10 biopharma deals of 2009

If there was a hot trend for 2009 biopharma buyouts, it was the mega-merger. Usually a rare animal, three of the industry's biggest players--Wyeth, Genentech and Schering-Plough--were swept off the map in the first quarter of 2009, as Pfizer, Roche and Merck absorbed them into the fold. And Novartis had its own major acquisition as it forked over billions to buy the chunk of eye-care company Alcon that it didn't already own. Drugmakers, it seemed, couldn't pass up the opportunity to cut cost and build pipelines.

The rest of 2009's top deals were considerably smaller. Sanofi's purchase of Merck's Merial Animal health--the result of Merck's buyout of Schering--came in at just $4 billion. GlaxoSmithKline continued its diversification push with the purchase of dermatology company Stiefel Labs, while Warner Chilcott took Proctor & Gamble's unwanted pharma unit off the consumer drug company's hands for a tidy $3.1 billion.

Below is the full list of the top 10 deals in biotech and pharma last year. Click here to begin the report [1].