De­spite a slow start to the year for deals, PwC pre­dicts a flur­ry of ac­tiv­i­ty com­ing up

De­spite whis­pers of a busy year for M&A, deal ac­tiv­i­ty in the phar­ma space is ac­tu­al­ly down 30% on a se­mi-an­nu­al­ized ba­sis, ac­cord­ing to PwC’s lat­est re­port on deal ac­tiv­i­ty. But don’t rule out larg­er deals in the sec­ond half of the year, the con­sul­tants said.

PwC phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal and life sci­ences con­sult­ing so­lu­tions leader Glenn Hun­zinger ex­pects to see Big Phar­ma com­pa­nies pick­ing up ear­li­er stage com­pa­nies to try and fill pipeline gaps ahead of a slew of big patent cliffs. Though a bear mar­ket con­tin­ues to maul the biotech sec­tor, Hun­zinger said re­cent deals in­di­cate that phar­ma com­pa­nies are still pay­ing above cur­rent trad­ing prices.

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