Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Dealmaking column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced October 2019.

During Q3, biopharma company fundraising reached $13.3bn, mostly from follow-on public offerings, which again made up the most of those dollars. Despite numerous deals valued at $100m+, M&A activity was the lowest of the year. Many of the biggest partnership deals were centered around the inflammation/immune area.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma paid $3bn up front in a wide-ranging deal involving multiple "vant" companies owned by Roivant. Lundbeck acquired what could be an important asset in the CGRP migraine market with the takeover of Alder for nearly $2bn in up-front and earn-out payments. Device financing surpassed pharma financing due to a $2bn debt offering by Alcon.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Dealmaking column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced September 2019.

Device financing totaled $2.3bn for Q2 2019, with the debt category bringing in the most money. Merger and acquisition deals reached an aggregate $9.1bn (a 25% increase from Q1), thanks mostly to 3M’s  $6.7bn takeover of Acelity and its KCI subsidiaries. Diagnostics/research financing, which totaled $2.4bn, showed a significant rise from the previous quarter, while diagnostics/research tools M&A values, at $233m, exhibited a steep decline.

Celgene was involved in the two largest alliances of August: one to divest a product to satisfy regulatory conditions of its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb and the other to develop adoptive cell therapies. There was continued acquisition activity in the CDMO market as Cambrex was bought out by investment firm Permira. Biopharma and device funding were both down.