Dealmaking in biopharma. The numbers.

Very interesting numbers of dealmaking in biopharma:

Not surprisingly, oncology led the pack. Cancer was the single most active therapeutic area with 161 deals, or 24 percent of all deals that were assigned a therapeutic area. This category, by the way, accounted for 29 percent of the aggregate deal sizes disclosed last year and is potentially worth $10 billion, based on 35 cancer deals that disclosed a deal size. And slightly more than half of the cancer deals were signed during the discovery or pre-clinical phases.

Elsewhere, the highest median deal size last year were among autoimmune & inflammatory agreements at $400 million, which was based on 15 deals that disclosed an actual deal size. The highest median upfront payment was $27.3 million, based on nine deals that disclosed an upfront payment. There were 56 deals altogether in this category, by the way, that were worth about $5.5 billion, according to the Deloitte analysis.

The second-highest median deal size was found in the endocrine and metabolic category at $163 million, based on 11 of 55 deals that disclosed figures. The median upfront payment was $10.5 million, based on 8 deals that disclosed figures.

 

Median upfront payments increased as the stage of development advanced for deals granting comparable territory rights – discovery stage through Phase I compounds earned median upfront payments ranging from $8.4 million to $10.1 million, while Phase II compounds brought in $19.5 million. Phase III compounds garnered $25 million, and registration stage compounds notched $59 million, the analysis found.

Median deal sizes for large molecules and biologics and small molecules were nearly comparable – $221 million, which was based on 46 deals that disclosed size, and $199 million, which was based on 56 deals that disclosed size, respectively. This breakdown was roughly the same for median upfront payments – $13.5 million based on 34 deals that disclosed a payment, and $10.5 million based on 52 deals that disclosed an upfront payment, respectively.

 

For those wondering about the largest deals last year, the top five had an aggregate announced deal size of $8.2 billion and upfront payments totaling $738 million. The two largest deals in 2011 involved co-development of five products between large pharma partners, and three of the five largest deals involved products in either Phase III or registration stage, according to Deloitte.