Gagnon Marc-André, Volesky Karena D
Associate Professor, School of Public Policy and Administration, Carleton University, Richcraft Hall, Room 5201, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada.
Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, 1020 Pine Avenue West, Montreal, QC, H3A 1A2, Canada.
Global Health. 2017 Aug 22;13(1):62. doi: 10.1186/s12992-017-0285-x.
Drug shortages and increasing generic drug prices are associated with low levels of competition. Mergers and acquisitions impact the level of competition. Record merger and acquisition activity was reported for the pharmaceutical sector in 2014/15, yet information on mergers and acquisitions in the generic drug sector are absent from the literature. This information is necessary to understand if and how such mergers and acquisitions can be a factor in drug shortages and increasing prices.
Data on completed merger and acquisition deals that had a generic drug company being taken over (i.e. 'target') were extracted from Bloomberg Finance L.P. The number and announced value of deals are presented globally, for the United States, and globally excluding the United States annually from 1995 to 2016 in United States dollars.
Generic drug companies comprised 9.3% of the value of all deals with pharmaceutical targets occurring from 1995 to 2016. Globally, in 1995 there were no deals, in 2014 there were 22 deals worth $1.86 billion, in 2015 there were 34 deals totalling $33.56 billion, and in 2016 there were 42 deals worth in excess of $44 billion. This substantial increase was partially attributed to Teva's 2016 acquisition of Allergan's generic drug business. The surge in mergers and acquisitions for 2015/16 was driven by deals in the United States, where they represented 89.7% of the dollar value of deals in those years.
The recent blitz in mergers and acquisitions signals that the generic drug industry is undergoing a transformation, especially in the United States. This restructuring can negatively affect the level of competition that might impact prices and shortages for some products, emphasizing the importance of updating regulations and procurement policies.
药品短缺和仿制药价格上涨与竞争水平低下有关。并购会影响竞争程度。据报道，2014/15年制药行业的并购活动创历史纪录，但文献中缺乏仿制药领域并购的相关信息。了解此类并购是否以及如何可能成为药品短缺和价格上涨的一个因素，这些信息是必要的。
从彭博财经有限责任公司提取已完成的并购交易数据，这些交易涉及被收购的仿制药公司（即“目标公司”）。按全球、美国以及1995年至2016年每年排除美国后的全球范围，以美元呈现交易数量和宣布的交易价值。
1995年至2016年，仿制药公司占所有涉及制药目标公司交易价值的9.3%。在全球范围内，1995年没有交易，2014年有22笔交易，价值18.6亿美元，2015年有34笔交易，总计335.6亿美元，2016年有42笔交易，价值超过440亿美元。这一显著增长部分归因于梯瓦制药2016年收购艾尔建的仿制药业务。2015/16年并购的激增是由美国的交易推动的，这些交易在当年占交易美元价值的89.7%。
近期并购热潮表明仿制药行业正在经历变革，尤其是在美国。这种重组可能会对竞争程度产生负面影响，进而可能影响某些产品的价格和供应短缺情况，这凸显了更新监管和采购政策的重要性。
