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

Deal flow continues to be strong in the North American Pharma & Life Sciences sector with 23 transactions announced in the month of October. North American-based companies contributed largely to the activity, announcing 18 acquisitions, including cross-border transactions in South America, Australia, Europe and Asia.

Canadian companies accounted for four deals, including QLT’s disposal of QLT USA Inc, MDS’ disposal of its Central Lab Operations, YM BioSciences’ acquisition of Cytopia Ltd. and Maxxam Analytics’ acquisition of Cantest.

There were six non-core businesses or asset disposals, which were driven by the parent companies’ strategy to focus on core products and or regions expected to drive their business going forward.

On a sub-sector basis, 14 (or 61%) of the transactions were for entities that provide products or services to the sector, while eight (or 35%) were attributed to drug development companies. There was one medical device transaction.