Biopharma financings reached $70.09 billion in the first half of 2024, a 129% increase from the $30.57 billion raised in the first half of 2023. At more than $70 billion, this year's financings are already approaching the full-year total of $70.97 billion for 2023. June saw $7.57 billion in total financings, a decrease from $9.15 billion in May.

Health ministers from EU member states called for action to “enhance access to innovative medicines” following a Council meeting on June 21, when they agreed to continue work on improving health policy coordination across the bloc. Health must be “kept as a priority” by the new European Commission that is shortly due to start a five-year term, following the June EU elections, ministers said, setting out the key areas where they want the incoming commission to concentrate its efforts.

Lotte Biologics Co. Ltd. broke ground on its contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) plant at its Songdo Bio Campus in Incheon, South Korea, on July 3 to grow its production capacity and set “a new standard” for Korean CDMOs in the global market.

In May 2024, BioWorld covered 298 updates across phase I-III clinical trials, surpassing March (261), February (236) and January (252), though falling short of April’s high of 323. Additionally, at the end of May BioWorld revised its reporting criteria for clinical trial updates, focusing mainly on data readouts and excluding trial initiations, enrollment changes and initial patient dosing, thereby impacting the update count relative to prior months.

In the first five months of 2024, the BioWorld Neurological Diseases Index (BNDI) saw a 10.35% decline, underperforming both the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (NBI), which rose by 0.7%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which increased by 2.64%. This represents an additional drop for BNDI, which closed February with a 4.1% decline. In contrast, in 2023, the BNDI closed with a 4.36% increase, outperforming the NBI, which rose by 3.74%, but not matching the 13.7% rise seen in the DJIA.