For European biotechnology, 2022 was a year of contraction. Disclosed equity investments in European firms engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutics totaled $6.782 billion, down 55% on the previous year’s record-breaking tally of $15.193 billion. Last year’s tally is the worst performance since 2017 and is well below the totals achieved during the two years immediately preceding the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered a boom in biotech investing.

Equity investment in European biotechnology firms engaged in therapeutic discovery and development continued its downward slide during the third quarter. The total for the period, $1.106 billion, is down 39% on the second quarter of this year and down 41% on Q3 2021. The ongoing weakness of the public markets is the main driver of the trend. In Q3, listed firms raised little more than half of what they managed in Q1 of this year, while the IPO window remains firmly closed. At present, the sector is bumping along at investment levels last seen about five years ago.

China’s Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. is launching a new biotech company called Luzsana Biotechnology that will develop and commercialize Hengrui assets in the U.S., Europe and Japan. A wholly owned subsidiary of Hengrui, Luzsana, which means “healing light,” will develop innovative products from Hengrui’s pipeline.

DUBLIN – After a COVID-19-fueled funding bonanza, European biotechnology appears to have reverted to the mean in the second half of this year. Firms engaged in drug development raised a total of $1.886 billion in disclosed transactions during the third quarter (Q3) of 2021. That represents a 44% fall on the total raised in Q2, which was itself down 46% on the Q1 total. The sector has raised a total of $11.44 billion so far this year, meaning that last year’s highwater mark of $12.682 billion is still within reach – but only just. The funding momentum appears to have stalled for now.

DUBLIN – Investment in European biotechnology slowed dramatically during the second quarter, as the funding frenzy of the first three months of the year gave way to a very solid but a less spectacular performance. Collectively, European firms engaged in drug discovery and development raised $3.358 billion in disclosed transactions during the second quarter, down 46% from the $6.195 billion raised during the first quarter.

DUBLIN – European biotechnology firms engaged in drug discovery and development raised a record $5.9 billion in equity investment during the first quarter. It’s further evidence that the pace of biotech investing has become even more frenetic than last year’s full tilt. The first three months of the year can often be a quiet one for European biotech, but the amount raised in Q1 2021 comfortably exceeds the totals raised for all of 2016 and 2015. Venture capital investing, IPOs and share offerings by listed firms all performed strongly, dwarfing the equivalent figures for recent years. The new year has started with a big bang.

It was a turbulent year for publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies, but after a lackluster first quarter that saw biopharma equities plunge dramatically, particularly at the beginning of March, there was a gradual recovery over the final three quarters of the year. In order to determine just how well the sector performed on the capital markets, BioWorld examined the fortunes of 516 U.S. biopharma and related stocks.