Pharma licence deals hit record $46.2 billion

Values primarily driven by Sanofi activity

Licence deal values in the pharma sector rose by 37.1% from $33.7 billion in 2014 to $46.2 billion in 2015, driven primarily by Sanofi, which struck three licence deals totalling nearly $9 billion, according to research and consulting firm GlobalData

In the company’s latest whitepaper, Gianfranco Zeppetelli, GlobalData’s deals analyst, said:

“Sanofi inked two key partnerships for metabolic indications, the first of which was a $4.3 billion partnership with South Korea’s Hanmi Pharma.

“Sanofi gained the exclusive worldwide license to develop and commercialise three pipeline products for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

“Sanofi also made a $1.7 billion agreement with Lexicon Pharma to manufacture and sell sotagliflozin, an investigational oral dual inhibitor of SGLT-1 and SGLT-2 currently in phase III development.”

GlobalData’s whitepaper states that there has been a surge in investment of deals in the immuno-oncology space over the past five years, as immunotherapies have advanced significantly.

As part of this wider investment, Sanofi signed a $2.7 billion deal to co-develop Regeneron’s REGN-2810, a programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) inhibitor currently in phase I testing.

Another important immuno-oncology partnership was Pfizer’s $2.9 billion agreement with Merck to develop and commercialise avelumab, an investigational anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody in Phase II development as a potential treatment for multiple metastatic and advanced solid tumors, including breast and prostate cancer.

Under the terms of the agreement, Merck will receive an upfront payment of $850 million and is eligible to receive regulatory and commercial milestone payments of up to approximately $2 billion.

Zeppetelli continued: “Pharma companies are adapting to current market dynamics and positioning themselves for growth through portfolio transformation, targetted deal-making, cost-cutting measures, and sharpening their focus on high-performing therapeutic areas, and geographic markets.

“We believe deal prices will continue to rise in 2016, as many big pharma companies look to increase their market share in specific therapeutic areas against their competitors.”