Deals in Depth: April 2008
Executive Summary
April 2008 dealmaking highlights include: Astellas Pharma penned a $760mm alliance with CoMentis for a novel Alzheimer's disease target; Novartis and Takeda each made billion-dollar acquisitions: Novartis continues to diversify its offerings through the Alcon buy, and Takeda is extending its overseas presence and adding to its cancer pipeline in the Millennium deal. Public investors were absent from biopharma financing, while 25% of medical device investments came from follow-ons.