Largest M&A pharmaceutical deals ever as of 2024

As of early 2024, the largest deal in pharmaceutical industry history was Pfizer’s acquisition of Warner-Lambert for nearly 90 billion U.S. dollars in 2000. A further two deals in the rankings involve the American company Pfizer: its acquisitions of rival firms Pharmacia (2002) and Wyeth (2009). No M&A deal from the 2020s made it into the top list so far. The most recent big deals were the acquisitions of Allergan by AbbVie and of Celgene by Bristol-Myers Squibb, both in 2019. In 2023, the largest biopharma M&A deal was the acquisition of Seagen by Pfizer, valued at around 43 billion U.S. dollars. However, this deal still did not make it into the all-time top 10 of biggest pharma deals.

Deals that reshaped the pharma industry

The year 2000 was a significant one in the pharmaceutical industry. The merger of SmithKline Beecham and GlaxoWellcome was completed at the end of the year and created a pharmaceutical giant to compete with Pfizer. Rising research and development (R&D) costs were one reason for such mega-mergers – the R&D expenditure of companies based in the United States increased by approximately 11 billion U.S. dollars between 1995 and 2000. In the race to develop new drugs, companies searched for merger partners so that R&D budgets could be combined.

Pfizer believes in the power of advertising

Pfizer is ranked as one of the world’s most valuable pharmaceutical brands. The company continues to invest large sums of money into advertising its products to consumers. One of the company’s best-known products is Viagra, which entered the market in 1998 and quickly became one of the most heavily advertised products in the pharmaceutical industry.