Biopharma merger and acquisition value for the third quarter of 2020 reached $41.7bn, more than seven times Q2’s $5.9bn (see Exhibit 1). At the top (making up half of the Q3 total), was Gilead Sciences Inc.’s definitive agreement to acquire Immunomedics Inc. for approximately $21bn. Even if we take out that outlier, third quarter M&A still showed a significant increase over Q2. Where there were only two M&A transactions to hit the billion-dollar mark in Q2 (Novo Nordisk AS’s $2.1bn buy of private US biotech Corvidia Therapeutics and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s buy of fellow public biotech Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc.), Q3 saw five such deals, four involving big pharma.
Through the Gilead/Immunomedics transaction, which is expected to close in Q4 2020, Gilead gains Immunomedics' Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan), making it...
