HONG KONG – Peptidream Inc. inked a research collaboration with Amolyt Pharma SAS to test and optimize Peptidream’s growth hormone receptor antagonist (GHRA) peptides, with the aim of selecting a candidate to develop as a potential treatment for acromegaly.
If there are three takeaways from this year’s dealmaking efforts, they appear to be record-setting partnerships, lackluster M&As, and massive amounts of research funding via the U.S. government.
The combined total of biopharma nonprofit collaborations and grants in 2020 has reached about $24 billion, more than three times the amount recorded for 2019.
Still not there yet, but close. Biopharma projected deal values are currently at $159.4 billion, just shy of the 2019 record of $160.3 billion. With about six weeks left in the year, it is highly likely that 2020 will come out on top.
Just as financings are hitting record levels, biopharma deals should finish out 2020 on top, based on solid partnerships signed in the first three quarters of the year. While mergers and acquisitions have slowed this year, particularly in the third quarter, several big-money M&As slated to close in the fourth quarter could move the needle, putting this year within the top three highest values.
The number of biopharma deals and mergers and acquisitions completed so far within the past three months are significantly down from each of the first two quarters of 2020. But despite slumping activity and uninspiring M&A values, the projected values of licensings, collaborations and joint ventures, at about $45.4 billion, has placed the nearly complete third quarter in line with the rest of the year. That is mainly due to July and August having two of the largest deals for the year. Together, they make up 27% of the money disclosed in the third quarter, although there is still a week and a half left in September.
As biopharma deal values continue to rise above recent years, a growing percentage of the funds are coming through partnerships with companies headquartered in Asia and nearby countries. The $48.5 billion reported so far in 2020, for deals in which at least one party is based in either Asia, Australia or New Zealand, represents 37% of the global deal value.
Continuing a trend that began in June, the largest biopharma deals of 2020 have all occurred this summer, led by the $6.3 billion global partnership on cancer immune therapies between Tango Therapeutics Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. earlier this month.
The top two biggest money biopharma deals in 2020 occurred in June, putting the month ahead of all other months for the year in terms of deal values and volumes.
Despite the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, biopharma dealmaking values in the second quarter of 2020 increased by 22.4% since the first quarter, and M&A values – thanks to Abbvie Inc. completing in May its $63 billion buyout of Allergan plc – are at a four-year high. A total of 529 deals, including licensings, collaborations and joint ventures, reported during the second quarter had projected values of nearly $49 billion, a step up from the 471 deals and $40.8 billion value of the first quarter.
