Drug delivery technology Mergers and acquisitions activity expected to increase

The drug delivery technology segment has grown in value from $ 15 billion in 2000 to $ 50 billion in 2008 to become a key area in the pharmaceutical industry; start-ups as well as big players are involved. The market is growing quickly, but despite an increasing number of strategic alliances, the pure M&A activity remained below 100 transactions for 2007 and 2008. We expect M&A activity to grow since drug delivery companies are a key growth driver for the pharmaceutical industry: Drug delivery technology is an answer to nearly $ 80 billion in lost value for drugs with expiring patents during the next few years and it is an innovation enabler as well. M&A transactions are the marriage of niche technologies, complementary to each other, and they are intended to achieve profitability through a more effective technology offer. Thanks to good access to venture capital funding, and the birth of new drug delivery players after spin-offs from pharmaceutical companies, we expect to see in the medium term a consolidation trend and an increased number of transactions. The M&A activity is expected also benefit from crisis-driven consideration to be active, in number of transactions if not in transaction size.