Totals for aggregate deals and in the M&A, alliance and divestment categories were similar among the 10 busiest deal makers from 2020 to 2021, but COVID-19 may have driven a more hectic deal-making pace overall in 2020.

During the first quarter, medical device company mergers and acquisition totalled $10.2bn, while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players completed M&A activity that totaled $5bn.

In its first quarter 2021 sales earnings report, Roche highlighted the strength of its diagnostics business as biosimilars cannibalize its pharmaceutical revenues.

Tempest goes public via a reverse merger with Millendo. Takeda inks its ninth deal of 2021, a discovery pact with BridGene around its chemoproteomics technology.