While the volume of clinical data in July dipped below previous pandemic months, the amount of news focused on therapeutics or vaccines for COVID-19 is climbing, representing about 16% of BioWorld’s database entries during the month.
As the money keeps rolling in, 2020 is certainly a year for the biopharma record books. With a total of $81.26 billion raised through Aug. 6, it is a standout year in every type of financing, hitting all kinds of record highs.
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.
Although the FDA suggested in May that it might have trouble meeting PDUFA dates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 30 approvals of biologics and drugs handed down in June 2020 is the highest number for a single month in the past five years.
As society continues to re-open and biopharma companies move back toward a business-as-usual approach, the number of clinical trials affected by the COVID-19 pandemic has plummeted with only 12 reporting delays or disruptions in the month of June. This compares to 171 in April and 71 in May.
The biopharma industry has raised nearly $62 billion in the first six months of the year, bringing it very close to the $68 billion full-year record of 2015. Well over half of that money has been raised in just the last two months, with May collecting $23.4 billion and June pulling in $16.28 billion.
A number of clinical trials hit primary endpoints in May, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which still accounted for about 30% of the phase I through phase III news flow during the month.
Money raised through biopharma financings so far in 2020 is double the amount raised within the same timeframe of 2019, partly due to two large financings completed in May by Sanofi SA, which is working on candidates to treat or prevent COVID-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Few would dispute that the best way to find innovative solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic is through industry, academia and government working together. BioWorld data indicate that more than 45% of the biopharma deals with nonprofit entities (bio/nonprofit) in 2020 are indeed focused on fighting the globally-disruptive SARS-CoV-2 virus.
