ADEL Inc. closed a year-end licensing deal worth up to $1.04 billion with Sanofi SA for ADEL-Y01, a specific tau-targeting Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate in a U.S. phase I study.

Two large deals and an acquisition, totaling about $4.64 billion in all, are helping wrap up what’s turning out to be a strong year. Through the first 11 months of 2025, biopharma dealmaking was robust with a collective value of $261.14 billion, the highest January through November total of the past seven years and well above 2024’s $201.35 billion. These three December deals helped revive the surge in dealmaking that had cooled in November.

Through the first 11 months of 2025, biopharma dealmaking remained robust with collective value reaching $261.14 billion, the highest January through November total of the past seven years and well above 2024’s $201.35 billion. November contributed $15.62 billion, below the average of $24.55 billion per month and a notable decline from October’s unusually strong $31.91 billion, which was the single highest month of 2025.

China’s clinical trial volume has surged to nearly U.S. scale and now tops Europe, sitting at about 80% of U.S. levels and roughly 10% above the EU in 2024.

Cycle Group Holdings Ltd. is buying Applied Therapeutics Inc. for a small fraction of the company’s value when it went public in 2019. Cycle is paying $0.088, nearly 9 cents, in cash per share plus a contingent value right (CVR).

Experience gained in the Asia-Pacific region is helping shape the Menarini Group’s global strategy as the Italian pharmaceutical company looks to emerging markets to drive long-term, sustainable growth.

The quest for metabolic disease assets continues with another player promising top dollar for novel therapeutics that deliver. Copenhagen, Denmark-based Zealand Pharma A/S entered a collaboration and license agreement with newly formed OTR Therapeutics to pursue next-generation small-molecule therapeutics, beyond the Danish firm’s current peptide pipeline candidates focused on the GLP-1, GLP-2, GIP, amylin and glucagon mechanisms.

Formation Bio Inc. acquired ex-China rights to Lynk Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.’s oral TYK2-inhibitor, LNK-01006, for up to $605 million. The phase I-ready central nervous system (CNS) candidate will be developed at Formation’s newly formed subsidiary, Bleecker Bio.

Immutep Ltd.’s stock surged 31% on Tuesday morning following the news that it out-licensed rights to Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. to develop and commercialize eftilagimod (IMP-321, efti) in selected territories in a deal worth AU$528.4 million (US$349.5 million).