1st-Half 1994 Health Care Deals Exceed $18 Billion

Over 230 mergers, acquisitions, licensing agreements and such like have taken place in the health care sector in the first half of this year, according to a new report from KPMG Peat Marwick, and their total value is put at $18.4 billion.

Straightforward mergers and acquisitions totalled 51, while strategic alliances numbered 182 (37 were financing, 38 collaboration deals, 58 licensing agreements, 47 marketing and/or distribution rights agreements and two involved the setting-up of new companies), the report shows.

16 of these deals involved US firms acquiring part of/or the entire equity of another US company, and a further four were US firms buying part of/or the whole of a foreign company. In addition, there were 10 foreign companies acquiring part/or whole of a US company and 37 were foreign companies buying other foreign companies. The report points out that in 14 of the mergers or acquisitions, the domestic/home country of one or both was not known.