His hesitant interest in Bristol-Myers Squibb went nowhere fast, but it probably spurred Sanofi-Aventis to get serious. And he let someone else buy Kos Pharmaceuticals, despite being urged to jump in the fray. But Fred Hassan is undeterred.

“We are actively looking for deals,” the Schering-Plough ceo tells Bloomberg.“We are in the deal-making mode as a buyer. We have good financial headroom because we built up our cash flow and it is very interesting that in recent months we’ve had a steady stream of small deals.”

To prove it, he recently issued a press release about a recent investment in a smaller company and made a point of listing those other deals - all of which were small fry - over the past year or so. But what about the big catch, Fred? Will that ever come? You won’t get excited by his answer.

“I think a lot of the large-caps have already done their consolidation,” he posits. “There is going to be more in the mid-cap space especially in continental Europe and Japan where for many years you had a lot of family firms that focused more on local products.”

Okay, but don’t forget to check the skies over Kenilworth, NJ, for another trial balloon.

[tags]Fred Hassan, Schering-Plough[/tags]