The tides have turned for med-tech financings as private companies are now raising the largest proportion of money. In the early months of 2021, 2020 and 2019, public companies took the greatest share. However, amounts raised overall are down by 50% over the same period of 2021 and the number of transactions has fallen 17%.
As biopharma deal values climb, industry M&As are at a five-year low, not yet showing the pickup in 2022 that some analysts expected. BioWorld has recorded 330 deals, including licensings, joint ventures and collaborations, valued at $44.4 billion so far in 2022. That is a 41% increase in volume and a 31% increase in value over the same time frame last year.
From every perspective, the number of biopharma deals with nonprofit or government entities, as well as industry grants, are significantly below last year, and efforts focused on the COVID-19 pandemic have dropped as well.
Despite three mammoth deals signed for antibody-drug conjugates, the BioWorld Cancer Index (BCI), which ended last year down 36%, has fallen another 35% in the early months of 2022. It is a much sharper decline than that seen with the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which are down 18% and 7.5%, respectively.
Financings in the first two months of 2022 amount to only a third of the money raised during the same timeframe of 2021, and the number of transactions is down by 56%.
A total of seven new molecular entities (NME) have been approved by the U.S. FDA this year, while another seven therapies received dreaded complete response letters from the agency. Out of 9 FDA approvals in February, including two BLAs, three NDAs, three supplemental applications, and one abbreviated NDA, were three NME clearances.
Two years ago, BioWorld reported on 30 therapeutics and vaccines in development for COVID-19, about 3,000 people had died from the disease, and societal lockdowns began. Today, therapeutics and vaccines have ballooned to 1,048, deaths are at 6 million, and the world remains on edge due to highly transmissible variants and breakthrough infections. One thing remains the same: Scientists still do not know where the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated.
The deadly SARS-CoV-2 virus that has cost nearly 6 million lives worldwide and disrupted global economies has brought the biopharma industry $82 billion in sales revenue since the start of the pandemic, with guidance for another $88 billion this year.
