Comparison
Biotech IPO, M&A, Licensing & Financing — 2026 Signals
A cross-filter dashboard over ~370 standardized biotech dealmaking events (Oct 2024 – Oct 2026): M&A, IPOs, China-led licensing, and private financing. One shared filter drives a world map, ten charts, a live deal list and a click-through profile for every deal. Headline licensing values are mostly contingent — the dashboard separates committed upfront cash from milestones/CVR so you can read the deals honestly.
- Comparison
- LINK
- Updated 2026-10-06
Capital markets · Oct 2024 – Oct 2026
Biotech dealmaking, in the data
374 standardized events — M&A, IPOs, licensing and private financing — across roughly 300 companies, in the current upcycle. Every chart, the map and the deal list below share one filter: click a region, pick a therapeutic area, or search a company and the whole page re-reads. Headline licensing values are mostly contingent — judge committed cash on upfronts. Rows carry the source's own confidence caveats; treat pending deals and milestone totals with care.
Events
374
in scope
Disclosed value
$577.7B
headline, incl. milestones
M&A
95
40% median premium
IPOs
37
$285M median raise
Licensing
84
$19.4B upfront / $241.5B headline
Financings
158
VC · RM · debt
Deal explorer
Filter the whole report
Click a country on the map or use the chips — the map, every chart below and this list all narrow together. Click any deal for its full profile.
Europe, zoomed
Hover or click a country
All mapped deals
374 deals · $577.7B headline value
374 deals
Momentum
Deal flow by quarter
Bars = deal count by type; line = total disclosed value.
The cycle, 2020 to 2026
Deal flow against the XBI
Market-level history stitched to this report's dataset. Not filtered by the map.
Bars = m&a headline value (left axis). Black line = XBI quarter-end close (right axis). Solid bars are published market-level series; paler bars after the dashed line are this report’s own deal dataset under the same definition, so the two halves are indicative, not strictly like-for-like.
The dataset is broad, not exhaustive: it is a curated sample of announced deals, so counts at the seam can understate the market-level definition. Treat the step across the seam as indicative, not as a measured change.
The map and chips above do not filter this chart: market-level history has no deals to filter.
Landmark deals of the cycle
| Date | Company | Type | Value | Counterparty | Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-09-13 | Immunomedics | M&A | $21.0B | Gilead Sciences | Oncology (TROP2 ADC, Trodelvy) |
| 2020-10-05 | MyoKardia | M&A | $13.1B | Bristol Myers Squibb | Cardiology (cardiac myosin inhibitor) |
| 2020-12-12 | Alexion Pharmaceuticals | M&A | $39.0B | AstraZeneca | Rare disease / complement |
| 2021-12-14 | Vifor Pharma | M&A | $11.7B | CSL | Nephrology / iron deficiency |
| 2022-05-10 | Biohaven Pharmaceutical | M&A | $11.6B | Pfizer | Neurology (migraine, Nurtec) |
| 2022-12-12 | Horizon Therapeutics | M&A | $27.8B | Amgen | Rare disease / immunology |
| 2023-03-13 | Seagen | M&A | $43.0B | Pfizer | Oncology (ADCs) |
| 2023-12-22 | Karuna Therapeutics | M&A | $14.0B | Bristol Myers Squibb | Neuropsychiatry (muscarinic, schizophrenia) |
Explore any angle
Pick two dimensions and see the market
Choose what goes on each axis, the bubble size and the colour. Follows the filters above. Click a bubble to open its deal profile.
368 of 374 deals plotted (2 lack a date; 4 lack a headline value). Bubble area scales with headline value (log scale).
Use the arrow keys to step through plotted deals in order along the horizontal axis. Press Enter to open the selected deal and Escape to clear.
Hover or click a bubble for details, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys to step through deals.
- M&A92
- IPO37
- Licensing82
- Financing157
Headline value includes milestones, CVRs and other contingent payments — it is a ceiling, not committed cash. Upfront is what changes hands at signing.
Who buys what
From buyer to therapeutic area to modality
Ribbon width is deal value, upfront or count. Top counterparties; the rest are grouped.
Hover or focus a node or ribbon for its figures.
Link width = headline value, on one scale across the whole chart. Top 10 counterparties by that measure; the rest are grouped as “Other counterparties”. A deal is credited to its lead counterparty.
Showing 317 of 374 deals. Excluded 57: 44 with no counterparty, 3 with no therapeutic area, 6 with no modality, 4 with no disclosed figure.
Headline value includes milestones and CVRs, which are mostly contingent. Upfront-only shows disclosed cash at signing.
The buyers
Who is spending, who is under pressure
Buyer types, patent-cliff exposure against actual deal appetite, and regional flows.
Who is spending
1 of 179 deals name no identifiable buyer (grey).
Patent cliff vs. deal appetite
Bubble size = number of deals. X is revenue exposed to loss of exclusivity, a lower-bound sum of sourced figures, not a forecast of lost sales. 62 buyers with no sourceable figure (e.g. large pharmas whose main expiries fall after 2030) are not plotted. Upfront is a floor: undisclosed upfronts count as zero.
Who buys from whom
| Buyer HQ ↓ / Target → | North America | Europe | China | Asia-Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 48 | 11 | 20 | 1 |
| Europe | 43 | 12 | 21 | 3 |
| China | 1 | 1 | ||
| Asia-Pacific | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Other | 1 |
Cell = number of deals. Buyer region is the counterparty’s headquarters; target region is where the asset’s company sits. 6 deals lack one or the other and are left out.
Where the money clusters
Therapeutic area × modality
Darker cell, more deals. Click a cell to pin its largest deals.
| Small mol. | Antibody | Bispecific | ADC | Cell | Gene tx | Gene edit | RNA | Radio-pharm. | Peptide | Vaccine | Platform | Other | n/d | Deals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oncology | 94 | ||||||||||||||
| Immunology & Inflammation | 62 | ||||||||||||||
| Neurology / CNS | 41 | ||||||||||||||
| Cardiometabolic / Obesity | 50 | ||||||||||||||
| Rare / Genetic | 41 | ||||||||||||||
| Infectious disease | 14 | ||||||||||||||
| Ophthalmology | 12 | ||||||||||||||
| Other | 57 | ||||||||||||||
| Not determined | 3 | ||||||||||||||
| Deals | 137 | 41 | 28 | 18 | 16 | 9 | 8 | 20 | 11 | 23 | 4 | 27 | 23 | 9 | 374 |
Click a cell to list its largest deals. Hover shows the figures.
Deals with an undetermined therapeutic area or modality stay in the grid under “Not determined” / “n/d” rather than being dropped.
What a deal costs
Acquisition premium
Premium to prior close, by development stage or therapeutic area.
Hover a dot for the deal.
Show the numbers
| Category | n | Min | Q1 | Median | Q3 | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | 4 | +6% | +32% | +75% | +135% | +215% |
| Phase 2 | 3 | +2% | — | +38% | — | +65% |
| Phase 3 | 3 | +40% | — | +49% | — | +54% |
| Filed | 2 | +68% | — | +70% | — | +72% |
| Marketed | 15 | -4% | +21% | +34% | +62% | +140% |
Box = middle half (Q1 to Q3); whiskers reach the furthest deal within 1.5 × the box width; black bar = median; every dot is one acquisition. Rows with fewer than 4 disclosed premiums show dots and the median only, because quartiles of 1–3 points are not a distribution. Only 27 of 95 M&A deals in this selection disclose a premium to prior close (68 do not, mostly private targets). Those are not plotted. Premium is a percentage, not a dollar figure, so the milestone/CVR caveat does not apply — but premiums on CVR-heavy deals are usually quoted on the upfront price.
Cadence by deal type
Quarter by quarter
One panel per deal type on a shared quarter axis.
Bars = deals per quarter (left axis). Line = headline value (right axis, its own scale in each panel, so compare shapes, not heights, across panels). All panels share the same quarters, 24 Q4 to 26 Q4. Paler bars (24 Q4, 26 Q4) are quarters the dataset only partly covers, so they under-count.
2 deals with no quarter are not on this chart.
Headline value includes milestones and CVRs, which are mostly contingent. Upfront-only shows disclosed cash at signing.
Where the deals are
Therapeutic area
Deal count; hover for disclosed value.
What's being bought
Modality
Deal count; hover for disclosed value.
Maturity at deal
Stage of lead asset
How far assets get before an exit or raise.
Who's buying
Most active counterparties
Acquirers, licensees and lead investors by deal count.
M&A pricing
Premium vs deal size
Each point is a public-target acquisition; premium to prior close vs headline value.
Committed vs promised
Upfront vs contingent — biggest disclosed deals
Headline value splits into cash upfront and contingent milestones/CVR. Licensing is mostly contingent.
Leaderboard
Largest deals by headline value
Ranked by disclosed total; licensing totals are mostly contingent.
| Company | Type | Counterparty | Headline | Upfront | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSPC Pharmaceutical | Licence | AstraZeneca | $18.5B | $1.2B | 2026-01-30 |
| Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals | Licence | Bristol Myers Squibb | $15.2B | — | — |
| Intra-Cellular Therapies | Acquisition | Johnson & Johnson | $14.6B | $14.6B | 2025-01-13 |
| GeneQuantum | Licence | Biohaven | $13.0B | — | 2025-01-15 |
| Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals | Licence | GSK | $12.5B | $500M | 2025-07-28 |
| Recordati | Acquisition | CVC/GBL consortium | $12.4B | $12.4B | 2026-05-22 |
| Avidity Biosciences | Acquisition | Novartis | $12.0B | $12.0B | 2025-10-26 |
| Organon | Acquisition | Sun Pharma | $11.8B | $11.8B | 2026-04-26 |
| Innovent Biologics | Licence | Takeda | $11.4B | $1.2B | 2025-10-22 |
| Bio-Techne | Acquisition | Merck KGaA | $11.3B | $11.3B | 2026-06-25 |
| BioNTech (BNT327 from Biotheus) | Licence | Bristol Myers Squibb | $11.1B | $1.5B | 2025-06-02 |
| Apogee Therapeutics | Acquisition | AbbVie | $10.9B | $10.9B | 2026-06-22 |
| Nuvalent | Acquisition | GSK | $10.6B | $10.6B | 2026-06-09 |
| Innovent Biologics | Licence | Pfizer | $10.5B | — | — |
| Crinetics Pharmaceuticals | Acquisition | Vertex | $10.0B | $10.0B | 2026-07-06 |
How to read this
- Broad, not complete. 374 events from trackers (chiefly BioBucks) and primary filings; 2026 is denser than 2024–25. Follow-ons are thin.
- Headline ≠ cash. Licensing totals are mostly milestones/CVR — the upfront vs contingent chart is the honest view. For China licensing in 2025, upfront was about 5% of headline.
- Pending deals may not close, and many CVR/milestone values will never be paid. Tools/services deals are included but can be filtered out.
What's inside
- A world map of deal activity by region (North America, Europe, China, Asia-Pacific) — click to filter the whole report
- Deal flow by quarter — M&A, IPO, licensing and financing counts plus total disclosed value
- Therapeutic-area and modality breakdowns — where the capital is going (oncology, I&I, cardiometabolic; ADCs, cell/gene, radiopharma)
- Upfront vs contingent — how much headline licensing/M&A value is committed cash vs milestones/CVR
- Premium vs deal size, stage-at-deal, and the most active acquirers, licensees and investors
- A searchable, click-through deal list with a full profile for all ~370 events, and a largest-deals leaderboard
Best used for
- Scanning the current M&A and IPO window for comparable deals and valuations
- Mapping the China out-licensing wave and who is buying which modalities
- Briefing a team on biotech capital-markets momentum before a partnering, fundraising or M&A decision
Related
More like this
Biopharma Filtration & Bioprocessing Products Compared — 2026
A vendor-neutral, 59-product comparison of biopharma filtration & bioprocessing product lines from 23 makers — TFF, virus filtration, sterile filtration, depth clarification, membrane chromatography, centrifugal separation, ultrapure water and one automation-layer challenger. Filter by application, format, scale, single-use/reusable, region and confidence. Every row is confidence-marked against vendor datasheets; prices shown only where genuinely disclosed.
Autosamplers & Automated Sampling Compared — 2026
A vendor-neutral, 85-product comparison of autosampler / automated-sampling product lines from 38 makers, for biotech & pharma — across four segments (bioprocess-aseptic, analytical/QC, liquid-handling, process-analytics) plus R&D-automation adjacents and one market-exit case study. Filter by segment, pricing model (perpetual vs subscription), hardware compatibility (vendor-agnostic vs platform-specific), region and confidence. Every row is confidence-marked against vendor datasheets.
European CDMOs Compared — 2026 Landscape
A broad, confidence-marked census of 240+ European pharma/biotech CDMOs — not a curated top-50 — compared across tier, ownership, revenue, modality coverage, geography, and the axis that's actually up for grabs: digital maturity. See it on a real map of Europe, filter by any dimension, and sort the head-to-head table. Every row is marked for how solid its data is.
Questions about this resource?
Want it in a different format, need the methodology behind a number, or wondering how it applies to your programme? Ask a practitioner — a straight answer, usually within one business day.