Bristol Myers’ M&A Lawyer Breaks Down Its Holiday Deal Spree

Catherine Dargan was interviewed in Bloomberg’s Deals newsletter on her work for Bristol Myers Squibb’s $18 billion series of deals in December, one of which was signed on Christmas day.

Commenting on how these deals fit into larger trends she’s seeing in the life sciences industry, Catherine said, “There is still a need to find innovative products and therapies. Many biotechs have innovative science but they are often looking to larger pharmaceutical companies to take their work further to help more people.” She added that “we’re still early in the year, but I do think that work is going to continue to be robust. Life sciences companies still need to do deals: smaller companies have financing needs and larger companies still need to look for additional products.”

Catherine also shared her expectations on what she expects to see from the industry over the next year: “There are certain areas like oncology and CNS [central nervous system] that seem very, very hot where we’ll probably see more deals this year. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more movement with cell and gene therapy and the weight loss products as well as in radiopharmaceuticals, which is a cutting edge. Even outside of life sciences, there’s pent up desire to put money to work. Antitrust scrutiny and the approval processes for M&A deals continue to be uncertain, particularly in [life sciences] but deals are still going forward. We’re advising clients that the timelines could be longer.”