Apart from a 2006 spike, the annual number of deals has remained relatively flat, with an average of ∼440 deals per year; however, deal size has swollen tenfold. Licenses for small-molecule discovery/screening platforms, monoclonal antibody, oncology and infectious disease assets predominate, with drug delivery partnerships increasing, perhaps due to the rise of biobetters. Deals on hepatitis C virus NS5B polymerase inhibitors, a small molecule against all vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) subtypes and a biosimilar figure prominently this year.

Historic total number and average value of biotech deals

Historic number of deals by primary technology/modality

Historic number of biotech deals in top ten disease categories

Historic number of biotech deals by development stage

Top biotech deals by value in Q1 to Q3 2011