Nothing like a temperature reading to see how the patient is doing. And that’s what the In Vivo Blog did the other day in preparation for an upcoming conference. A question was sent to a bunch of people, including the heads of big pharma R&D and business development organizations, biotech ceo’s, investment bankers and venture capitalists.

The question? What deal signed in the last 12 months said the most about pharma’s current situation? The response was the $15.6 billion AstraZeneca is paying for MedImmune. And as the blog describes it, the “driver was product panic.” Here a few of the comments they received, which indicate how anxious it’s made some people at big pharma…

A big pharma R&D chief: “The deal shows the magnitude of the desperation of the pharmaceutical industry, and how badly things are going right now.”

The head of business development at a big drugmaker: The price “illustrates the general paucity of pipelines in many major companies. Over time, I believe this is a value destruction deal and if replicated too often will lead to trouble.”

A biotech ceo: “Biologics are likely to represent 30 percent of any big pharma’s future product portfolio and that they have to get in the game now, not via this or that product but, rather, by acquiring a soups-to-nuts biologics capability.”

To get a different take on the same deal, read these comments by MedImmune ceo David Mott.

Hat tip to the In Vivo Blog