North American Pharma & Life Sciences M&A Update – December 2009

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There was a significant jump in M&A activity in December in the North American Pharma & Life Sciences sector with 36 announced deals – up more than 50% from November’s total of 23 announced deals.

Canadian companies accounted for six of the transactions, including two cross-border deals: CanReg’s sale to i3 Global and Laboratoire Dr. Renaud’s sale to Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The remaining four transactions consisted of: Diamedica’s acquisition of Sanomune; NPS Pharmaceutical’s sale of a majority stake of its Canadian division, NPS Allelix, to a group of private investors; LAM Industries’ acquisition of Viorra Bio Medical and Ixora Bio Medical; and Spectral Diagnostics’ partial sale to BioMS Medical and GrowthWorks.

Of the 36 transactions, 38% (14) were cross border. Four North American companies were sold to buyers from Japan, Switzerland, Germany and the UK while North American companies made acquisitions in Ireland, France, UK, Italy, Israel, Australia, and India.

Private equity and venture capital funds made six investments in the sector and divested of four. Of the 10 transactions, six were in the drug development subsector and two were in each of the medical devices and services subsectors.

On a subsector basis, the majority – 61% or 22 – of the transactions were in the drug development subsector. In contrast, services and medical devices accounted for 22% and 17%, respectively.