Pharma M&A round-up 2025: protecting against patent cliffs to come
With 2025's pharma M&A spend exceeding $150 billion—going by deals reported on by The Pharma Letter—the total was higher than the sum spent in both 2024 and 2023.
The major reason for the flurry of acquisitions, especially in the second half of the year, is evidently big pharma's need to replenish pipelines ahead of upcoming patent expiries for some of the industry's biggest-selling medicines.
Of the biggest spenders, US pharma giant Merck & Co (NYSE: MRK) splashed out the most at $19.2 billion, followed by healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) at $17.65 billion. The top five was completed by European heavyweights Novartis (NOVN: VX) ($16.35 billion) and Sanofi (Euronext: SAN) ($12.92 billion), along with Danish biotech major Genmab (CPH: GMAB), which spent $8 billion.
This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free. A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.
Login to your accountTry before you buy
Free
7 day trial access
- All the news that moves the needle in pharma and biotech
- Exclusive features, podcasts, interviews, data analyses and commentary from our global network of life sciences reporters.
- Receive The Pharma Letter daily news bulletin, free forever.
Become a subscriber
£820
Or £77 per month
- Unfettered access to industry-leading news, commentary and analysis in pharma and biotech.
- Updates from clinical trials, conferences, M&A, licensing, financing, regulation, patents & legal, executive appointments, commercial strategy and financial results.
- Daily roundup of key events in pharma and biotech.
- Monthly in-depth briefings on Boardroom appointments and M&A news.
- Choose from a cost-effective annual package or a flexible monthly subscription
The Pharma Letter is an extremely useful and valuable Life Sciences service that brings together a daily update on performance people and products. It’s part of the key information for keeping me informed
Chairman, Sanofi Aventis UK
More on this story...
Today's issue
Company Spotlight
More Features in Pharmaceutical
| Headless Content Management with Blaze