Summertime Sales from Novartis

Summertime Sales from Novartis

It’s been a busy summer for Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS). The Swiss drug-maker has sold off a few assets, one at a loss. On August 31, Mylan NV (NYSE: MYL) acknowledged that it paid $463 million for Novartis’ cystic fibrosis products. Novartis sold the worldwide rights to commercialize its cystic fibrosis products TOBI Podhaler (tobramycin inhalation powder) and TOBI (tobramycin solution for inhalation). Mylan expects to pay $240 million this year, with the rest coming later. Then on September 6, Novartis announced the sale of certain assets in its Sandoz U.S. portfolio,  specifically the Sandoz dermatology business and generic oral solids portfolio. It comprises approximately 300... Read More »

Generic Drug Deals Are Getting Rarer

The patent cliff is boosting the volume and market share of generic pharmaceutical products. Generics account for 88% of all prescriptions filled annually in the United States, according to the latest IMS Report. For good reason, since generic drugs typically cost between 50% to 70% less than their branded equivalents. Governments and managed care companies have historically been proponents of generic drugs, which can lower the cost of healthcare across the entire continuum. 2015 was the year of the M&A boom in the generic drug segment, with 25 deals totaling $64.8 billion. The targets include the companies focused on generic pharmaceuticals as well as the... Read More »

Mylan Adds Topical Pharmaceuticals Business

Mylan NV (NASDAQ: MYL) still has money to spend, following its $9.9 billion deal for Swedish drug maker Meda AB in February. On Friday, May 13, RoundTable Healthcare Partners announced that its portfolio company, Renaissance Acquisition Holdings, LLC, had agreed to sell its non-sterile topical drug business to Mylan for $950 million, plus additional contingent payments of up to $50 million. The topical division is a specialty pharmaceutical business focused on manufacturing, developing, sales and marketing of branded and generic drug products. The acquisition brings a complementary portfolio of approximately 25 branded and generic topical products, an active pipeline of approximately 25... Read More »

Mylan Bags Meda AB on the Second Try

The pharmaceutical M&A sector has gotten very quiet in February, with just five deals announced as of Feb. 17. Compared with the 11 announced in January 2016 and 13 announced in February 2015, deal making has definitely slowed down. So it was good news to hear that Mylan NV (NASDAQ: MYL) agreed to pay $9.9 billion, including debt, to acquire Swedish generic drug maker Meda AB (STO: MEDA). Back in 2014, when Mylan was still based in the United States and known as Mylan, Inc., it made an unsuccessful run at Meda. Of course, late last year it carried on an all-out hostile takeover battle for Perrigo Company (NYSE: PRGO) that proved unsuccessful in the end. This time around, the Meda... Read More »

What U.S. Health Care Companies Are Buying Overseas

We’re hosting a webinar on March 12 called  Cross-Border M&A: Opportunities and Issues. As a run-up to it, here’s a peek at what U.S. health care companies have bought overseas in 2015, excluding the typical pharma/biotech rights and licensing deals. We’ve seen 13 acquisitions of foreign companies so far, better than the 10 recorded in the same period in 2014. In the first two months of this year, $2.3 billion has been committed to those transactions. See the chart below. Read More »