Pharma M&A Activity Picks Up Pace: What Does It Signal for 2026?

Key Takeaways Pfizer agreed to buy Metsera for $4.9B, marking its return to the obesity space.Roche plans a $3.5B acquisition of 89bio to expand into metabolic liver disease.Novo Nordisk will purchase Akero Therapeutics for $4.7B to deepen its MASH pipeline.After a muted start to 2025, Big Pharma is back on the M&A trail. In just a month, three major players — Pfizer (PFE) , Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Roche (RHHBY) — announced multi-billion-dollar deals targeting the fast-growing, lucrative metabolic and obesit ...