This week the rumour mill is grinding out the names of Germany's Schering and Switzerland's Novartis, as the markets quiver with the anticipation of another wave of consolidation in the European pharmaceutical industry.
Bloomberg has published a report suggesting that Schering could be a takeover target for Novartis, citing analysts including Marcus Konstanti at Bank Sal Oppenheim.
There does not seem to be much substance to the rumour, and both companies have declined to comment on 'market speculation'.
"There are overlapping areas that make sense, but big areas that don't overlap," Marcus Konstanti of Bank Sal Oppenheim is quoted as saying. "The question is if such a deal would be worth it."
The companies are collaborating on one project, the cancer drug valatanib, currently in Phase III clinical testing as a treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer. The drug is an orally-active vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor inhibitor, which is thought to work by blocking the development of new blood vessels in tumours, effectively starving them from the inside.