Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Flurry Of Health Care Deals Highlights Companies' Focus On Scaling Up
The New York Times: Health Care Companies See Scale As The Only Way To Compete
A spate of deals on Thursday showed that health care companies are convinced, regardless of tax benefits, that bigger is not only better, it is necessary. The whole industry seems to be reading from the same playbook: Pair up with a company that makes the same product to become a leading provider, and thus gain more clout to negotiate business with hospitals and health insurers. (Picker, 4/28)
Bloomberg: Pfizer Who? Health-Care Deals Bounce Back From Inversion Scare
The $40 billion in new health-care deals announced Thursday shows there's more to M&A than tax breaks. A U.S. government crackdown on companies using overseas addresses to dodge taxes was supposed to put a damper on acquisitions this year. Tougher regulations killed Pfizer's 160 billion combination with Allergan - which would have marked the biggest health-care deal ever. In all, about $144 billion in deals for biotechnology, health-care and pharmaceutical companies have been announced this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That's up 27 percent from a year ago when the industry was on its way to a more than 12-year record for deals. The main motivation hasn't changed; companies are facing competition and need new products to bolster sales. (Baigorri and David, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Place Big Bets On Cancer Medicines
Despite a growing outcry over the rising cost of cancer treatments, drugmakers are placing multibillion-dollar bets on new medicines they expect will command premium prices and generate big sales. ... The flurry of deal activity surrounding cancer drugs comes as politicians, doctors and health-insurance companies blast the pharmaceutical industry for its pricing—particularly for new cancer treatments with monthly costs that commonly exceed $10,000 a patient. (Loftus, Bisserbe and Kostov, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal: Abbott Agrees To Buy St. Jude In $25 Billion Deal
Abbott Laboratories’ deal to acquire medical-products maker St. Jude Medical Inc. for $25 billion was the largest in a flurry of health-care deal-making Thursday that could total more than $40 billion. France’s Sanofi SA said Thursday it made an unsolicited, $9.3 billion offer to purchase San Francisco-based Medivation Inc., which sells a lucrative prostate-cancer drug. AbbVie Inc. of North Chicago, Ill., agreed to pay $5.8 billion, plus up to an additional $4 billion in potential future payments, to acquire privately held cancer-treatment developer Stemcentrx Inc. of South San Francisco, continuing AbbVie’s aggressive push to build an oncology business. The deals show health care remains an engine of M&A activity despite a crackdown on tax-lowering maneuvers known as inversions that drove a number of large deals in recent years. (Walker and Stahl, 4/28)
Bloomberg: Abbott To Buy St. Jude Medical For $25 Billion In Record Deal
Abbott Laboratories agreed to buy heart-device maker St. Jude Medical Inc. for $25 billion, its biggest ever acquisition as the industry consolidates to gain bargaining power with hospitals. (Cortez, 4/29)
The Chicago Tribune: Abbott Agrees To Buy St. Jude Medical For $25 Billion
Abbott Laboratories made a huge investment in heart-related medical devices Thursday, agreeing to buy St. Jude Medical in a deal worth $25 billion. (Sachdev, 4/28)
Reuters: Sanofi Confident It Can Win Medivation Shareholders Support
Sanofi, which reported higher quarterly profit on Friday boosted by its Genzyme division, is confident Medivation shareholders will back its proposed takeover of the U.S. cancer drug company. (Blamont, 4/29)
