Pharma BD Deal Intelligence

Astra AB / Zeneca Group plc

1998 · Acquisition/Merger · $35.0B · Complete

WRONG BY 52 POINTS
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Top 5 most underrated deals we track Top 5 largest deals of the 1990s

Ranks computed across 828 graded deals (Critic + Outcome Score both present).

The coverage arc

Dec 09, 1998 CNN Money Neutral

AstraZeneca deal was largest drug merger in Europe, surpassing $28B Novartis combination. Combined $67B market cap made it the world’s third-largest drug firm.

May 16, 2014 Nature Reviews Drug Discovery Bearish

Post-merger R&D productivity declined significantly. Longitudinal study of 2005-2010 pipeline identified systemic attrition issues and proposed…

Jun 24, 2022 GaBI Journal Bearish

Astra’s Prilosec patent cliff put $6.2B in global sales at risk. The merger was partly defensive, building scale to weather the coming generic competition…

Source summaries from our enrichment pipeline; follow links for originals.

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Astra AB and Zeneca Group plc merged in a ~$35 billion all-share merger of equals to create AstraZeneca, the world's third-largest pharmaceutical company by sales. Zeneca shareholders received 53.5% and Astra shareholders 46.5% of the combined entity. The deal was completed in just 80 days.

Key facts

Related deals — scored

DealYearValueOutcome
Astra AB / Zeneca Group plc (this deal)1998$35.0B94
Pfizer Inc. / FoldRx Pharmaceuticals201099
Abbott Laboratories / Knoll Pharmaceuticals (BASF Pharma)2000$6.9B95
Merck & Co. Inc. / Acceleron Pharma Inc.2021$11.5B90
Johnson & Johnson / Actelion Ltd2017$30.0B90
Eli Lilly and Company / Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH2011$444M89
Novo Nordisk A/S / Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, Inc.2019$3.3B88

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