Two major deals announced during this weekâs J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference added up to the largest M&A turnout in years. How does that brief January flurry compare to previous years?
Johnson & Johnson led the charge with the biggest deal announced during the conference since at least 2018, revealing the pharma giant is in line to buy neuropsychiatric biotech Intra-Cellular Therapies for $14.6 billion. GSK also joined the fray this year with a $1 billion purchase of cancer drugmaker IDRx.
The M&A rebound has been years in the making as companies like J&J and GSK face a patent cliff that threatens billions in revenue, and they need to pump up their pipelines to adjust to the coming storm, experts have observed.