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     chemicals and pharmaceuticals

This page provides some benchmarks for acquisitions and disposals during the telecommunication booms and busts of the past twenty years.

It covers -

• pharmaceuticals
• medical devices
• chemicals
• studies

     pharmaceuticals

Major drug companies have been claimed as casualties of their own success, creating 'blockbuster' pharmaceuticals in high demand around the world but then facing competition from generic treatments and thus needing a rapid replacement of new drugs to fill marketing pipelines. Absorbing a large competitor offers one means of quickly obtaining a substitute blockbuster and economies of scale for new R&D, although critics argue that much innovation is not coming from the big labs.

Pharmaceutical sector landmarks include -

• Novartis pays US$5.1bn to take full control of Chiron in 2005
• Botox maker Allergan agrees to acquire rival Inamed for US$3.2bn in 2005
• Amgen agrees to acquire Abgenix for US$2.2bn in 2005
• Fujisawa Pharmaceutical merges with merger with Yamanouchi in US$7.6bn deal in 2005 to create Astellas
• Sankyo joins with Daiichi Pharmaceutical in US$7.7bn merger in 2005
• Sanofi-Synthelabo buys Aventis for US$66.2bn in 2004
• Bayer buys Roche OTC business for US$2.96bn in 2004
• UCB buys Celltech for US$2.7bn in 2004
• Pfizer acquires Pharmacia for US$60bn in 2003
• Shire Pharmaceuticals Group acquires BioChem Pharma in all-stock deal worth C$5.9bn in 2003
• Amgen buys Immunex for US$16.7bn in 2002
• Du Pont sells pharmaceutical operations to Bristol-Myers Squibb for US$7.5bn in 2001
• Glaxo merges with SmithKline in US$172bn deal in 2000
• Pfizer acquires Warner-Lambert for US$88bn in 2000
• Astra merges with Zeneca as AstraZeneca in US$34bn deal in 1999
• Ciba-Geigy merges with Sandoz as Novartis in US$63bn deal in 1996
• Dow sells pharmaceutical operations to Hoechst for US$7.1bn in 1994
• Monsanto buys Kelco from Merck for US$1bn in 1993

Landmarks prior to the 1990s include -

• Beecham acquires SmithKline Beckman for US$8.9bn in 1989 
• Bristol-Myers acquires Squibb for US$11.9bn in 1989
• Dow buys Marion Laboratories in 1989
• Monsanto buys GD Searle for US$2.5bn in 1985
• Dow buys Merrill Drug arm of Richardson-Vicks for US$260m in 1981

     medical devices

Landmarks in the medical device sector include -

• Angiotech Pharmaceuticals agrees to acquire
  American Medical Instruments Holdings for US$785m in 2006
• Boston Scientific pays US$27bn for Guidant in 2006
• Smith & Nephew and Beiersdorf sell bandage-maker BSN Medical GmbH for €1.03bn in 2005

     chemicals

Chemical industry landmarks include -

• Macquarie Bank consortium buys buying Dyno Nobel Holding ASA for US$1.7bn in 2005
• Blackstone buys Celanese for US$3.8bn in 2004
• Dow Chemical buys Union Carbide for US$9.3bn in 2001
• Degussa-Hüls pays £1.36bn for Laporte in 2000
• AstraZeneca sells Zeneca Specialities to Cinven for £1.25bn in 1999
• DuPont pays US$7.7bn for Pioneer Hi-Bred in 1999
• ICI sold its remaining industrial chemicals businesses to Ineos for £325m in 2000
• ICI sells aromatics and Tioxide Group to Huntsman for £1.7bn in 1999
• Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux buys Nalco Chemical for US$4.1bn in 1999
• Hoechst sells its 45% holding in Clariant for €2.8bn in 1999
• Du Pont sells 30% of Conoco in IPO for US$4.4bn in 1998
• Akzo Nobel pays £1.8bn for Courtaulds in 1998
• Ciba Speciality Chemicals pays £1.42bn for Allied Colloids in 1998
• ICI sells polyester businesses to DuPont for US$3bn in 1997
• Unilever sells speciality chemicals businesses (Crosfields, Unichema etc) to ICI for £4.9bn in 1997
• Monsanto sells plastics arm to Bayer for US$5.8bn in 1996

Landmarks prior to the 1990s include

• ICI acquires Stauffer Chemical in 1987
• Union Carbide sells Ever Ready to Ralston Purina for US$1.4bn in 1986
• Du Pont spins off PVC operations as US$600m Vista Chemical in 1984
• Du Pont buys Conoco in 1981
• Dow sells oil & gas operations to Apache Petroleum and Dome for US$490m in 1982
• Ciba and Geigy merge as Ciba-Geigy in 1970
• Du Pont buys Roessler & Haaslacher in 1930
• Du Pont buys Gracelli Chemical in 1928
• Imperial Chemical Industries formed through merger of Brunner Mond, Nobel Industries, British Dyestuffs and United Alkali in 1926
• IG Farben Industrie formed through mergers in Germany

     studies

For a panoramic view of recent developments and drivers see Alfred Chandler's Shaping the Industrial Century: The Remarkable Story of the Evolution of the Modern Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industries (Cambridge: Harvard Uni Press 2005).

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