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than twenty other deals, both in the U.S. and in Europe, have been announced. (For further and up-to-date information, please visit www.meddatainc.com.) The largest deal is the acquisition of Bone Care International (BCII) by Genzyme (GENZ), a $600M transaction aiming to broaden the range of products offered by Genzyme to patients with kidney disease.

A few of the other transactions are also of particular interest. First, the acquisition of Corixa by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is a takeover of a partner in an effort to broaden GSK’s technology base for vaccine development. Corixa is also the codeveloper of Bexxar—a monoclonal antibody treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The acquisition thus removes the need for GSK to pay royalties to Corixa for current and future products.

The acquisition of ESP Pharma by Protein Design Labs (PDLI), on the other hand, is a step in the latter’s effort to transform itself into a company with its own sales force but also adds additional product revenues. Valeant’s (VRX) acquisition of Xcel also adds revenues and products to the pipeline. The deal between Jazz

M&A Transactions Plentiful

With such a disappointing reception to public offerings, one wonders if there are other investor exit events which have done better? Indeed, there is one such exit — the M&A field has been very active across different industries with several major trans-actions announced since the beginning of the year and we have seen a flurry of deals in the life-science industry as well. Chart 3 summmarizes selected such deals with a focus on the larger deals although more

Pharmaceuticals and Orphan Medical (ORPH) is unusual in that the former, a privately-held company, is taking over a publicly-listed company. Jazz, formed in 2003, had previously raised $265M in equity financing and added another $75M in senior debt financing for this deal. We thus find that these deals were done at valua­tions higher than what we have seen for companies effecting an IPO during 2005.

Both the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) and Pfizer (PFE) acquisitions are additions to the internal product

pipelines as neither Transform, Peninsula, nor Idun, have products in the marketplace.

Going Forward

The chilly reception to public offerings we have seen this year is likely to continue, thus forcing life-science companies to look for other avenues for financing and for an exit for investors. A trade-sale to a larger pharmaceutical, biotechnology, or medical-device company, will most likely continue to be the preferred exit as market valuations for recent IPOs have been modest and the public introduction has become more of a financing event. Objects whichdo not manage to attract the interest of a larger compa­ny will need to be brought forward through mergers with other smaller companies, seeking addi­tional rounds of financing by private-equity investors

along the way, either equity or structured financing,alternatively be put out of their misery through a saleof assets. The secondary market is also a possibility for venture capital fund investors who need to close out a fund.

Hakan Gadler, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, is the founder and president of Meddata, Inc., a consulting firm advising primarily senior management of life-science companies on strategy, corporate development, and business develop­ment opportunities. He particularly enjoys being able to bring a medical/clinical, a research, and a business/mar­keting/investor perspective to the positioning and development of various promising life-science companies. Hakan can be contacted at hgadler@meddatainc.comor visit our website www.meddatainc.com.