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Pharma and biotech deal values rose 35% in 2023, as major drugmakers face patent cliffs and regulatory hurdles threaten their revenue prospects. axios reported Thursday, citing data from the London Stock Exchange Group.
This year's pharmaceutical and biotech agreement marks a brilliant place in global mergers and acquisitions activity, which has fallen ~17% to $2.87 trillion in 2023, the lowest point in a decade, according to the same source.
LSEG data indicates that in 2023, pharmaceutical and biotech deal values increased by 38% and 45% from last year, respectively, even like the number of agreements decreased slightly.
While pharmaceutical deals fell from 778 to 678 in 2023, deal values improved to $135.5 billion from $98.5 billion. However, there were 1,078 biotech deals worth $122.2 billion this year, compared to 1,088 deals worth $84.2 billion in 2022.
Drugmakers subject to Medicare drug price negotiations in 2026, including Bristol Myers Squibb (New York Stock Exchange:BMY), Pfizer (New York Stock Exchange:PFE), Merck (MRK), AstraZeneca (AZN), Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novartis (NVS), dominated the trading activity.
Companies facing major patent expirations, such as AbbVie (New York Stock Exchange: ABBV) and Biogen (BIIB), also made M&A headlines.
Pfizer's (PFE) $43 billion acquisition of cancer drug maker Seagen and Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) The $25 billion acquisition of rare disease drug developer Horizon Therapeutics closed this year despite antitrust concerns.
“The reality is that ships are shaking,” Cowen analyst Yaron Werber told Axios. As Federal Reserve rates stabilize and financial markets improve, “there is a confluence of pharmaceutical companies that are holding on to dry powder while biotech (companies) have become willing sellers,” Werber added.
