Although investors’ enthusiasm has cooled toward the biopharma sector, particularly large cap companies, over the past couple of months, they haven’t neglected it entirely and have been willing to reward those companies reporting positive news about their pipeline progress. As a result, a number of companies returned significant gains in their share valuations in August, contributing to the BioWorld Drug Developers index pushing more than 4% higher in the period and up 6% year-to-date.
The pace of biopharma mergers and acquisitions has quickened with Johnson & Johnson’s $6.5 billion all-cash acquisition of Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. Bringing Momenta into the fold strengthens the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson’s immune-mediated disease portfolio and grows its interest in autoantibody-driven disease therapies.