March 2016’s Biggest Health Care Deals

Health care companies are still attracting buyers, and those in the services sectors seem to be the hottest. Last month saw healthy deal volume, at 134 transactions. For a year that started slowly for health care mergers and acquisitions, March 2016’s deal volume is only 3% lower than the same month a year ago. Industry sources have noted the dearth of deals across many industries going into March, even though some uncertainties that troubled markets earlier this year, such as China’s economic slow down, haven’t occupied center stage recently. Leverage is not an overwhelming concern, but credit has tightened over the past few months. And with the new, more onerous federal rules regarding... Read More »

Biotechnology CROs Are Trading Again

Two contract research organizations (CROs) have changed hands in the past two weeks. On March 17, Hamburg, Germany-based IPM Biotech was acquired by BioAgilytix, a portfolio company of Riverside Partners, in Durham, North Carolina. As its name implies, IPM Biotech specializes in biotech research, specifically in large molecule bioanalysis in the area of immunogenicity. The transaction expands BioAgilytix’s global footprint with IPM’s newly planned GLP and GMB laboratory facility. Its services complement IPM’s rich immunogenicity, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics expertise. Less than a week later, LakePharma, Inc., a CRO in Belmont, California, acquired Blue Sky... Read More »