The big drug hunters: No­var­tis’ $28B-plus deal spree makes Vas Narasimhan one of the top deal­mak­ers of our time

No­var­tis CEO Vas Narasimhan talks a care­ful game when it comes to deal­mak­ing. But his new $9.7 bil­lion Med­Co buy­out — which gives him a late-stage PC­SK9 ther­a­py — puts him in the lead among top buy­ers hunt­ing the field for clin­i­cal-stage as­sets.

Chris Doko­ma­ji­lar at Deal­For­ma put to­geth­er a list of the top 15 M&A deals in­volv­ing Phase III or ear­li­er drug as­sets since 2008. No­var­tis’ Narasimhan forged 4 of those deals — with $24.4 bil­lion spent on the Med­i­cines Com­pa­ny, AveX­is, Ad­vanced Ac­cel­er­a­tor Ap­pli­ca­tions and En­do­cyte. All 4 were inked with­in the last two years. Add $3.4 bil­lion in cash for Xi­idra, along with a string of small­er deals, and the tal­ly comes to $28 bil­lion-plus.

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