Germany's biotech sector has continued its strong run in 2008. Shire's EU328 million (£261.5 million) acquisition of Jerini in July, has been followed by the country's largest ever private biotech acquisition, Bayer Healthcare's EU210m acquisition of Direvo Biotech.

"The medical technology space is very interesting at the moment because the margins are so good," commented Harald Maehrle, managing partner at Mummert & Company Corporate Finance, which ran the sale process for Direvo.

He added: “We hope that there will be more deals in the biotech sector. Mid-size companies are still active. Germany has had two to three years of strong activity in the mid-market space.”

According to Maehrle, the majority of biotech companies in Germany tend to be privately-held and those that are listed are currently trading at a large discount to their offer prices.

In addition to the Jerini and Direvo deals this year, Germany's biotech M&A has also been buoyed by Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo's purchase of U3 Pharma, a cancer antibodies specialist for EU150 million (£119.5 million) in May.