YTD23 NOV OUTLOOK:
CHINA BIOPHARMA GLOBAL TRANSACTION
INSIGHTS, TRENDS & ANALYSIS
Over the past 2 years, the number of In-Out licensed deals totaled over 200+, where out-licensing has out-paced in-licensing in 2023. In our opinion, this is largely driven by the capital constraints this year delving from the China domestic market, which we believe should improve as we approach 2024.
In November, we noticed a continued uptick in cross-border deals, now totaling 27 over the past 3 months, with the total number of deals ex-China continuing to surpass last years total. There was a notable slowdown going into November with out-licensing five (5) ahead of one (1) in-licensing, however the month recorded the largest deals of the year for both In and Out (see below). We expect this transaction trend to build up steam as we look towards the start of a new year.
For 2023, there were 57 out-licensing deals from China-based biopharma year to date with 30 in-licensing deals taking place. With regard to the development phase of the asset, the majority of deals continued to be within Pre-Clinical or Phase I. Oncology once again dominates the out-licensing space year to date, with Infectious Disease, Autoimmune & Metabolic Disease on the rise.
NOTABLE NOVEMBER OUT-LICENSING TRANSACTIONS:
Five Out-Licensing deals for global rights and global Ex-China mainly in the early stages Pre-Clinical and Phase 1, namely:
The top out-licensed deal from AstraZeneca buying ECCOGENE 诚益生物 ’s metabolic GLP-1RA for just over $2B (including $185 upfront)
Legend Biotech ech has secured an exclusive global license deal for $100 million upfront with Novartis giving the Swiss pharma access to Legend’s CAR-T cell therapies. Additionally, Legend Biotech will be eligible to receive up to $1.01 billion in clinical, regulatory and commercial milestone payments and tiered royalties.
Biotheus Inc. will grant BioNTech SE worldwide, exclusive options to a preclinical-stage bispecific antibody and a clinical-stage monoclonal antibody for cancer therapy in a deal valued up to $1.0B.
NOTABLE NOVEMBER IN-LICENSING TRANSACTIONS:
BeiGene closed on largest deal of the year to date by purchasing global rights for Ensem Therapeutics PC-IND asset targeting breast cancer via CDK2 inhibitor. The deal was valued at $1.3B for global rights
For 2024, we strongly believe that cross-border transactions should rebound as fiscal budgets replenish. This should facilitate incremental growth for in-licensing partnering opportunities, maintaining pace with out-licensing secular trends.