There have been 46 healthcare deals with prices exceeding $1 billion so far this year. Although those transactions only make up 4 percent of the 1,161 healthcare mergers and acquisitions that have taken place this year, they make up 85 percent of total spending, according to a recent report from Irving Levin Associates.
Here are the five deals with the highest price tags so far in 2014.
1. Troy Hills, N.J.-based pharmaceutical company Actavis paid $66 billion to acquire fellow pharmaceutical company Irvine, Calif.-based Allergan, Inc.
2. Minneapolis-based Medtronic, a medical device manufacture, paid $42.9 billion to acquire Dublin-based Covidien.
3. Actavis paid $25 billion to acquire Forest Labs, a pharmaceutical company based in New York City.
4. White House Station, N.J.-based Merck paid $17 billion to acquire Sigma-Aldrich Corp., a life science and technology company based in St. Louis.
5. Basel, Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company Novartis paid $16 billion to acquire Brentford, England- based GlaxoSmithKline's oncology business.
More articles on healthcare industry transactions:
Boston Medical Center, Tufts begin merger talks
Tenet ends bid to acquire 5 Connecticut hospitals
Breaking down the 5 most interesting hospital M&A deals of the year