European equities rose early on Monday, with Irish drugmaker Elan leading the sector on reports Novartis was in talks to buy parts of the company, while commodity shares tracked firmer metals and crude prices.
Isis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISIS) is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses entirely on RNA-based technologies and primarily, on antisense therapies.
The optimistic mood on Wall Street is finding support in a pick-up in M&A activity.
Swiss drug maker Novartis is taking Nestle’s 77% slice US eye-care company Alcon for $39 billion. Yahoo!, meanwhile, is sending smoke signals to Microsoft that it wouldn’t be against a bid if the price is right.
According to CityWire in Britain, the FTSE 100 broke through the 6,000 level “on a flurry of major corporate merger and acquisition reports from across the Atlantic.”