After a few years of a spike in biotechnology M&A, deal activity is inevitably slowing down in the industry. According to EvaluatePharma, in the first half of 2017, $2.91 billion worth of deals were negotiated. In comparison, there were $5.02 billion and $3.33 billion worth of deals in the second half of 2015 and the first half of 2016, respectively; however, the 2017 figure is up 33.5% from the second half of 2016. These figures do not include deals for which financial terms were unavailable, as in the case of a total deal value announcement, figures were commonly inflated and unreliable.

From 2013 to 2015, there was a rapid increase in up-front deals in oncology. The largest rise was for early stage assets, such as products in preclinical or phase I testing. Compared to the time period between 2010 and 2016, however, phase II and phase III assets have not shifted much in value, even with the rise of value in early stage assets. Overall, there has been a rise in valuations of phase-based deals. This implies that companies are looking to acquire earlier in order to find potentially successful assets.

Source: EP Vantage