Deal-making activity fell by nearly a fifth last year as pharmaceutical companies reduced R&D expenditure and streamlined their activities, research has shown.

PharmaVentures found that overall deals were down by 18% in 2011 and licensing arrangements fell by 16%. However, M&A activity increased by 30% as companies sought to secure their futures.

Fintan Walton, Chief Executive of PharmaVentures, said the industry is “undergoing a rapid and major transformation” but there was still “significant opportunity for great deals to be done”.

Research focused on PharmaVentures’ database, records and working relationships from within the pharmaceutical industry. It revealed that although merger deals were on the rise, so too were the contingency payments included in recent deals.

Oncology was the most popular therapeutic area to dominate the landscape with Roche being the most prolific deal-maker.

Unsurprisingly, pharmaceutical companies turned to Emerging Markets – particularly China and India – to conduct the majority of their deals. AstraZeneca recently completed a deal to acquire Guangdong BeiKang Pharmaceutical, a manufacturer of generic injectable antibiotics, to strengthen its position in the region. Bayer HealthCare also increased its presence in India last year when it partnered with Zydus Cadila after Merck had created a similar venture with Sun Pharmaceutical Industries.

PharmaVentures is an international healthcare advisory group.

Between 1,000 and 1,500 jobs are expected to be lost at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries as part of the company’s cost-cutting measures.

Reports from Israel claim the majority of the layoffs will be made in the US and Europe and mainly focused in Teva’s recently acquired Cephalon’s generic business.

The reports say that Teva is hoping to raise $500 million in synergies from its takeover with job losses expected to raise the majority of its target.

Teva has already said it is planning to cut sales, marketing and administrative expenses by $300 million, R&D by between $120 million and $150 million, and production costs by $50 million to $80 million. R&D savings would be achieved by cutting duplicate operations, the company said.

Teva has a history of job losses following takeovers of generic companies. In 2008 it bought US generic specialist Barr and reduced its workforce by 10%, reports say.

A reduction of 1,000 jobs at Cephalon would represent a loss of 27% roles before the takeover. But one company where job losses will be made, the reports say, is at Mepha, the Swiss generics manufacturer Cephalon bought last year. The company had 620 jobs prior to the acquisition.

The European Commission (EC) has introduced revised proposals that clarify the level of information pharmaceutical companies supply on prescription-only medicines.

The proposals include measures for information to be allowed through limited channels of communications only and labels including prices, clinical trial data and instructions for use.

John Dalli, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Policy, says the proposals put the “rights, interests and safety of patients first”.

The plans maintain the current advertising ban on prescription-only medication and amend original proposals first made in 2008 after concerns were raised about the increased use of the internet to gain drug information.

Although information on products would be available when specifically requested by members of the public in printed form, the proposals say information must fulfil recognised quality criteria featuring unbiased evidence-based data.

The EC also proposes that any information which has not yet been approved must also be verified by the authorities before it is published.

Mr Dalli said that the revised plans “oblige industry to provide certain key information to patients and set clear rules for additional, voluntary information on prescription medicines. In addition, they further strengthen the control of authorised medicines”.

The new measures have been backed by The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) who said it “welcomed” the proposals to improve patients’ access to information.

“EFPIA and its member companies have made it clear that they do not wish to see any ‘push’ of information on specific prescription medicines via TV, radio or print mass-media,” a statement said. “However, those citizens seeking information on their disease or therapy should be able to access it in both user-friendly formats and in their own language.”