Credit Markets Aren't Stopping Health Care M&A

Tight credit markets haven't stopped health care deals, and last week offered up another interesting chapter that involved three long picks from the Biotech Select portfolio.

Author:: Elizabeth Trotta
Publish date:: Mar 16, 2009 9:21 AM EDT

Tight credit markets haven't stopped health care M&A, and last week offered up another interesting chapter that involved three long picks from the Biotech Select portfolio.

Merck

(MRK) - Get Report

said it

will link up

with its cholesterol drug partner

Schering-Plough

(SGP)

, and

Roche

finally --

finally

found mutual terms

with

Genentech

(DNA)

, one of those long positions.

Biotech Select portfolio manager Adam Feuerstein says Genentech's blessing is enough to convince the minority shareholders to approve the deal, but what will Roche have to do to get Genentech's talent to stay?



var config = new Array(); config<BRACKET>"videoId"</BRACKET> = 16549961001; config<BRACKET>"playerTag"</BRACKET> = "TSCM Embedded Video Player"; config<BRACKET>"autoStart"</BRACKET> = false; config<BRACKET>"preloadBackColor"</BRACKET> = "#FFFFFF"; config<BRACKET>"useOverlayMenu"</BRACKET> = "false"; config<BRACKET>"width"</BRACKET> = 265; config<BRACKET>"height"</BRACKET> = 255; config<BRACKET>"playerId"</BRACKET> = 1243645856; createExperience(config, 8);

Meanwhile, two other long picks in the Biotech Select portfolio made merger news, as well.

Gilead

(GILD) - Get Report

said Thursday that it

is picking up

CV Therapeutics

(CVTX)

in a $1.4 billion deal.

Roche-Genentech was a long time coming, but just one of many matches made in health care recently. Not so long ago,

Eli Lilly

(LLY) - Get Report

bought