In Focus: Strong drivers will keep the pharma M&A pipeline bubbling

The record start to 2014’s pharma M&A has been a welcome boost to a deal market that had been in the doldrums, writes Gordon Hamilton, partner and Head of Healthcare M&A at Cavendish Corporate Finance.

However, AstraZeneca’s rebuff, for now, of Pfizer’s $69.4 billion offer has led some analysts to question whether this is the first sign of a sharp M&A slowdown in the sector. We believe otherwise, with a clutch of factors such as increasing companies therapeutic focus, drugs going off patent, big pharma’s lack of innovation, a focus on novel biologics and the continuing rise of emerging markets all key drivers continuing to support strong sector M&A deal flow.