The recent and upcoming expiration of patents on several blockbuster drugs and resulting loss of revenue will require pharmaceutical companies to search for new means to grow revenues. Megamergers, which were common in the past, will still occur. However, recent acquisitions by many pharmaceutical firms show a move instead to specialize in specific markets. For example, this month, in a $28.5 billion deal, Novartis bought GlaxoSmithKine’s cancer drugs, sold its vaccine unit to GlaxoSmithKline and sold its animal-health division to Eli Lilly, which had announced its interest in that market. The last year had $91 billion in pharmaceutical acquisitions, with a volume three times higher than in the 12 months prior.

Source: Bloomberg