A new wave of pharmaceutical industry mergers may be on the horizon, in part driven by the $1.3 trillion in overseas cash that U.S. corporations currently hold. If policymakers provide a tax holiday on repatriation of these funds, some experts say that U.S. pharmaceutical companies would be flush with cash and could likely spend a meaningful portion of this windfall on mergers.
While big mergers could have many impacts — on employment at home and abroad, competition, and drug prices, to name a few — one of the most important would be the effect on research and development productivity and innovation.
