M&A continues in pharma/biotech, but are mega acqusitions thing of the past?

While mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries continued apace in 2008, the size of the deals compared to a  few years back has decreased significantly. Of the 113 M&A deals  reported for last year (according to Marketletter records; see pages 4-5  for full listing), not one came even close to the value of the past  "mega buys," that of the hostile acquisition of Franco-German Aventis by  France's Sanofi-Synthelabo for $62.6 billion in 2004, and USA-based  behemoth Pfizer's purchase of Pharmacia for $57.0 billion in 2003.

In fact, what might have been the year's biggest acquisition - Swiss  drug major Roche's attempt to take control of the 44% of US  biotechnology firm Genentech it does not already own, has failed to come  to fruition, because the latter rejected as inadequate the $89 per  share, a total of some $43.7 billion, offer that was made - and is still  on the table. However, some observers believe that, given the credit  crunch that blighted the latter part of 2008 and sees no sign of  abating, the deal - even if Genentech backed down - will not be able to  proceed.