It's almost a certainty that five years from now gurus at top-notch B-schools will include the Roche/Genentech saga as a critical case-study in how-or how not-to acquire a partner. They will laud--or criticize--Severin Schwan, Roche's new CEO, for his chutzpah, pending the outcome of the ensuing weeks.

Highlights from the Q3 2008 review of pharmaceutical and biotechnology dealmaking: Financing dollar volume was more than twice that of Q2 with 105 deals bringing in over $4.4 billion, but not one IPO to be found. M&A dollars also nearly doubled to $23 billion in the third quarter--versus the previous three months--and of the 26 transactions with known values, more than half were over $100 million. Alliances saw activity focused primarily in two areas: drug delivery and large molecules, each category with 16 deals apiece. Total potential deal value (for the 43 alliances with known values) reached $4.5 billion, over one and a half times that of the previous quarter.

Highlights from the Q3 2008 review of pharmaceutical and biotechnology dealmaking: Financing dollar volume was more than twice that of Q2 with 105 deals bringing in over $4.4 billion, but not one IPO to be found. M&A dollars also nearly doubled to $23 billion in the third quarter--versus the previous three months--and of the 26 transactions with known values, more than half were over $100 million. Alliances saw activity focused primarily in two areas: drug delivery and large molecules, each category with 16 deals apiece. Total potential deal value (for the 43 alliances with known values) reached $4.5 billion, over one and a half times that of the previous quarter.