On January 21, 2014, Thomson Reuters' provided its year-end summary of data collected and analyzed from its Recap database:

  • Number of life sciences deals was up 30% in 2013
  • Total disclosed life sciences deal value - $158 billion in 2013
  • Total disclosed life sciences M&A deal value - $110 billion in 2013
  • Diagnostic M&A deal value down significantly in 2013 to $2.2 billion
  • Other than AstraZeneca, big pharma and big biotech were not significant acquirers in 2013
  • Most life sciences M&A deals occurred in 2013 at the marketed/approved stage (49%) and at Phase II (23%). Phase III and pre Phase II stage deals occurred less frequently.
  • 19% of 2013 life sciences M&A deals included contingent payments.  12% of total dollar value was at risk. 25% of private company M&A deals included contingent payments.
  • 690 collaboration/license deals in 2013, most in the last five years. $22 billion aggregate disclosed deal value.
  • 60% of collaboration/license deals in 2013 where the stage of development was disclosed at signing were at the lead/pre-clinical or discovery stage.
  • 33% of collaboration/license deals in 2013 were in oncology, up from 28% over the prior 5 years.
  • Autoimmune/inflammatory and oncology deals had higher deal values than other indications, and the gap is widening.
  • Worldwide territory deals (as opposed to regional deals) made up 90% of discovery stage deals, 78% pre-clinical, 73% Phase I and decreasing from there in later stage deals.
  • The top licensees in 2013 by deal value were Celgene, Roche, Lilly, Astellas, AbbVie, Gilead, Bayer, Otsuka, Merck and Baxter.
  • The busiest licensees in 2013 were Janssen (13), AstraZeneca (13), Roche, Pfizer, Celgene, Merck Serono, Merck, GSK, Takeda, Eli Lilly and Biogen Idec.
  • Pharma to biotech alliances dropped from 39% in 2008-2012 to 24% in 2013.
  • Biotech to biotech alliances increased from 42% to 52%.
  • Out of the top 10 deals by up-front payment size, 6 were at Phase II and 3 were at discovery stage (up from 0 in 2012).
  • Collaboration and option structures now constitute a majority of deals; straight licenses are less than half.
  • Collaborations with an option to license made up 16% of collaboration/license deals in 2013, up from 11% in 2012 and 8% in 2011.

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