The main volume of deals was among the specialty pharma companies, while big pharma spent $90 bln on acquisitions. Big pharma’s primary goal for M&A activities is to create business focused on strategic therapy areas and to divest non-core assets, both of which can make companies more profitable. Specialty pharma, on the other hand, acquires targets in order to increase the scale of its business and become more competitive in pricing its products.

Sources: PharmaTimes Digital, Pharmvestnik