Contrary to the broader markets, BioWorld’s Cancer Index is down by 22% this year, losing more than 7% throughout the month of July, despite oncology driving several high-money deals and accounting for 38%, the lion’s share, of financings. Both the Nasdaq Biotech Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are tracking similarly for the year, and are up by 13.2% and 15.2%, respectively, as of Aug. 10.

While the 441 med-tech financings completed so far this year are nearly as much as this point last year (446), the amount of money raised, at $33.43 billion, is 17% below the amount raised through early August of 2020 ($40.14 billion). Just two months ago, the volume of financings was 10% higher than last year, indicating a recent slowdown in activity. Nevertheless, 2021 appears to be on track to beat the $40.7 billion raised in 2019, and it is already ahead of the full year amounts for 2017 and 2018.

Total raised in public, private and other financings of biopharma companies, comparing 2021 vs. 2020 vs. 2019.

For the first time this year, the amount of money raised by the biopharma industry has dropped below the amount collected during the same timeframe last year, even though the number of transactions has climbed by nearly 10%.

Year-to-date money raised in public, private and other financings of biopharma companies.

These graphs compare the performance of the biotech stocks for all of 2021 using the BioWorld Stock Indicator and the Nasdaq Biotech Index.