During the two decades ending in 2015, the top ten human
pharmaceutical companies – Pfizer, Novartis, Sanofi,
Roche, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, GSK,
Teva and Gilead – were involved in over forty merger and
acquisition (M&A) activities. Dr Sam Al-Murrani of
Babylon BioConsulting LLC presents an analysis of the
results of this process. The main drivers for these
consolidation events were related to increasing regulatory
pressures, falling research and development (R&D)
productivity and the expiry of many patents that covered
some of the high-earner pharmaceuticals