Data and analytics company, GlobalData, has revealed its prediction that Merck will lead the way in licensing deals for the year when considering the success of the company since 2016.
Success
Within the pharmaceutical industry, companies’ financial success is often linked with the strategic deals they make with other companies or research organisations to enable the development of the next market leading drug.
Last year’s data had both AstraZeneca and Merck at the top for strategic alliance spending as a result of the $8.5 billion agreement they had formed for the co-development of Lynparza (olaparib) for multiple cancer types. However, AstraZeneca just clinched the top spot through its development deals with Pieris Pharmaceuticals and MedImmune.
“Despite this, Merck has had an arguably more successful year,” commented Lisa Marris, Healthcare Analyst at GlobalData. “It more than quadrupled its alliance deal values since 2016, and if its subsidiaries are added to the equation, its 2017 deal values rise to $9.5 billion, an increase of 248% from 2016, whereas AstraZeneca and its subsidiaries stayed almost stagnant at $11 billion.”
Pieris Pharmaceuticals also saw a good year, noted GlobalData, with alliances in 2017 worth more than 35 times those it made in 2016. However, the 2017 value was primarily due to its $2.2 billion co-development deal with AstraZeneca, alongside a $1.8 billion licensing agreement with Les Laboratoires Servier, which led GlobalData to anticipate a less successful year for the company this year.
“The development agreement with AstraZeneca will help Pieris enhance its inhaled drug candidates for respiratory diseases, whereas the collaboration with Servier will advance Pieris’ immune-oncology programmes, led primarily by PRS-332, a PD-1-targeting bispecific checkpoint inhibitor,” continued Marris.
In the same analysis, Allergan and Novartis were both found to have experienced slower years than 2016, with decreases in partnership and licensing deal value by 44% and 5%, respectively. However, both companies still closed big deals in 2017.
GlobalData expects that 2018 is likely to be Merck’s year in terms of research and development collaboration.