The landscape of biopharma deals and M&As has seen a transformative shift, with a year-over-year drop in transaction numbers while value has increased. Overall, biopharma deals saw an uptick in value of nearly 6%, and biopharma M&As concurrently soared 80% higher in value than the previous year.
Korean confectionary company Orion Holdings Inc. is growing its biotech presence by purchasing a majority stake of 25% in one of the hottest Korean antibody-drug conjugate developers, Legochem Biosciences Inc., although stocks dropped on the news. Under the contract announced Jan. 15, Seoul-headquartered Orion agreed to acquire a 25.73% stake in Daejeon-based Legochem by securing about 9.36 million shares for a total of ₩548.7 billion (US$412.11 million) by the deadline of March 29, 2024.
U.S. biopharma Sermonix Pharmaceuticals Inc. handed off China rights of lasofoxifene, an oral endocrine therapy in development for breast cancer, to Shanghai’s Henlius Biotech Inc., for an undisclosed up-front payment and up to $58 million in milestone fees.
Shanghai-based Ji Xing Pharmaceuticals has signed a number of licensing deals over the last week for China rights to cardiovascular drugs to advance its pipeline and its global ambitions, partnering most recently with Tokyo-based TMS Co. Ltd. after the Chinese company acquired global rights for TMS-007 (also known as BIIB-131) from Biogen Inc.
In December, biopharma deals reached $23.56 billion, the second-highest monthly total for the year. This reflects an uptick of 25.04% compared to November’s $18.84 billion in deal value. The full year 2023’s deal value of $217.69 billion marked the highest level ever recorded by BioWorld. This was an increase of 5.58% from $206.18 billion recorded in 2022 and surpassed the previous peak, 2021’s $213.57 billion.
U.S. biopharma Sermonix Pharmaceuticals Inc. handed off China rights of lasofoxifene, an oral endocrine therapy in development for breast cancer, to Shanghai’s Henlius Biotech Inc., for an undisclosed up-front payment and up to $58 million in milestone fees.
Shanghai-based Ji Xing Pharmaceuticals has signed a number of licensing deals over the last week for China rights to cardiovascular drugs to advance its pipeline and its global ambitions, partnering most recently with Tokyo-based TMS Co. Ltd. after the Chinese company acquired global rights for TMS-007 (also known as BIIB-131) from Biogen Inc.
Biocytocgen Pharmaceuticals (Beijing) Co. Ltd. has entered into an exclusive option and license agreement with Radiance Biopharma Inc., granting Radiance an option to license from Biocytogen a first-in-class fully human anti-HER2/TROP2 bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (BsADC).
While the value of partnerships and collaborations have climbed mostly upward in recent years, the most impressive increase has been seen with deals that are worth $1 billion or more – led in 2023 with a $22 billion antibody-drug conjugate pact between Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Merck & Co. Inc.
Boston-based Praxis Precision Medicines Inc.’s shares rose nearly 25% on Jan. 8 after it announced a pipeline update and licensing deal for its tremor drug, ulixacaltamide (PRAX-944), with Shanghai’s Tenacia Biotechnology Co. Ltd.