Eli Lilly and Co. posted $19.8 billion in first-quarter 2026 revenue, driven by tirzepatide, marketed as Mounjaro for type 2 diabetes and Zepbound for obesity. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker is channeling cash flow from these blockbuster GLP-1 drugs into an aggressive dealmaking campaign — about $25.1 billion across 10 announced acquisitions so far this year and more than $26 billion in other closed deals.

Abbisko Therapeutics Co. Ltd. has entered a research collaboration and license agreement with Eli Lilly and Co. to discover and develop innovative medicines across multiple targets, with the aim of advancing novel drug candidates with global potential.

SK Biopharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. is doubling down on AI-powered drug discovery through a new collaboration with Insilico Medicine Inc. valued at more than $2.5 billion. The milestone-heavy deal, announced at the BIO International Convention in San Diego June 22, will pair Insilico’s Pharma.AI platform with SK Biopharm’s central nervous system (CNS) drug development and commercialization capabilities, underscoring Korean and global biopharma efforts to embed AI across the entire R&D lifecycle.

In a deal viewed as a big win for both companies, Abbvie Inc. is buying Apogee Therapeutics Inc. for $10.9 billion. The transaction calls for shareholders of Apogee to receive $135.11 per share in cash, marking a nearly 50% premium over Friday’s closing stock price, and puts lead candidate zumilokibart, a late-stage, half-life extended monoclonal antibody targeting IL-13 that has shown competitive phase II data in atopic dermatitis, in the hands of a pharma giant with a well-established immunology franchise.

MPM Bioimpact-spawned K2 Therapeutics Inc. inked a license deal plus option agreement, worth $980.5 million apiece, to gain ex-China rights to two of Antengene Corp. Ltd.’s preclinical anticancer bispecific T-cell engager (TCE) assets. The deal, announced June 21, will grant Singapore-based K2 exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Antengene’s ATG-106 outside of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Med-tech M&A value through the first five months of 2026 reached $62.98 billion, the highest total for the period since 2022’s $84.13 billion and a dramatic step up from 2025’s $22.4 billion and 2024’s $21.86 billion over the same stretch.

Shares of Abcellera Biologics Inc. got a modest boost on news of a preclinical research collaboration with Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc aimed at developing next-generation T-cell engaging multispecific antibodies targeting gastrointestinal cancers and other solid tumors.

Biopharma deal value through the first five months of 2026 reached $135.36 billion, outpacing every prior year and topping 2025’s previous high of $103.92 billion. May was the year’s biggest month so far at $41.78 billion in transactions, making it one of the strongest individual months on record, and far outpacing April’s $13.87 billion. May 2026 comes in third in recent years in terms of deal value, after October 2023’s $44.91 billion and December 2022’s $42.45 billion.

The biotech industry delivered another year of strong headline performance in 2025, yet beneath the surface, a growing divide between the industry’s haves and have-nots is reshaping every dimension of how companies raise money, build pipelines and navigate an increasingly volatile policy environment. That is the message of the EY Biotech Beyond Borders Report 2026, an annual industry analysis produced by EY Insights that framed the sector’s defining challenge in a single question: “How can biopharma keep its balance?”