Notwithstanding the large number of announcements, the total disclosed valuations of mergers and acquisitions in the pharmaceutical sector during the first five months of the current year came down by more than 50 per cent, according to an analysis by Assocham.

The study on 'M&A Trends in Jan-May 2008', said that the number of deals has gone up from 8 in the corresponding period of 2007 to 17 this year, but the valuations went down by half. The total value was around 940 million dollars during January-May this year against two billion dollar in August-December 2007.

"The bearish market sentiment along with global uncertainty has impacted the value of M&A deals announced in some of the sectors in the current financial year", said Assocham president Sajjan Jindal in a release.

During the last quarter of 2007, the pharma sector had gone on high consolidation after a low share in the first and second quarter, with a total deals worth 1.9 billion dollars. GalxoSmithKline led the spree by acquiring Reliant Pharmaceutical for $1.645 billion. Cadila ($80 million), Plethico ($81 million) and Wockhardt ($70 million) cracked important takeover deals during the period.

However, no such big deals happened during the first five months of the year, though the number of M&E went up. It may noted that the recent mega sale of Ranbaxy to Japanese firm Daiichi Sankyo Co for 4.6 billion is expected to push the analysis charts for the period from June this year in the pharma sector.