Big Pharma M&A a boon for business, says Thermo Fisher

Thermo Fisher says it is well positioned to benefit from recent M&A activity within the biopharma space: Takeda and Shire, BMS and Celgene, AbbVie and Amgen.

So far, 2019 has been a big year for Big Pharma megamergers. Takeda completed its $62 billion (€56 billion) takeover of Shire in January, Bristol-Myers Squibb is moving closer to joining with Celgene in a $74 billion deal, and last month AbbVie entered an agreement to buy Allergan for $63 billion.

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The biopharma space is entwined with third-party firms supporting complex supply chains, thus consolidation and the inevitable synergies in the sector will always have an effect on suppliers and outsourcing partners.

According to CEO Marc Casper, historically Thermo Fisher has “done well when the pharmaceutical industry has consolidated because we are part of the synergy plans, and we bring our best thinking and help our customers meet their innovation and productivity level.”

Speaking during his firm’s Q2 2019 conference call (transcript here), he spoke of Thermo Fisher’s strategy in dealing with the recent M&A activity among some of its customers.

“We will come with proposals to help them be more effective and meet their targets, and our growth has benefited from those events. So we have plans for each of those different combinations. And for the one that’s closed, we’re actively working with the customers; and the other ones, we’re in the planning phase.”

Accelerating growth

For the second quarter, revenue increased 4% to $6.3 billion across the business. Its Life Science Solutions Segment grew 9%, though split figures were not reported.

However, Casper said: “We had another outstanding quarter in bioproduction. And of the results that I’ve read so far, we’re the fastest-growing bioproduction company organically.”

Rival Sartorius reported 21% year-on-year organic growth for the same quarter last week, while Danaher’s Pall saw another quarter of double-digit growth.