It's time to make a top view status of the deal activity for the 150+ European listed biotech companies in our universe. The data below include deals from all categories (R&D collaborations, Out-Licensing deals, Supply/Distribution deals, JV, IP licensing, Sales/Divestments), except the in-licensing deals. Please refer to our introductory report for more details and explanations. The amounts are based on disclosed amounts, so they are, by definition, underestimated compared to the actual total amounts.
The third quarter of 2019 was marked by a monster deal between Galapagos and Gilead. Described as a "unique deal in life sciences", this long-term strategic alliance (R&D collaboration & licensing option for the whole Galapagos pipeline over the next 10 years) obviously weighs a lot in the Q3 2019 deal figures. With 3.95 bUSD of cash upfront -a record for a European biotech company-, along with 1.1 bUSD of equity investment by Gilead, and additional option fees, milestones and royalties. The total value of this deal, based on disclosed terms is 7.3 bUSD. It deal could probably reach more than 10 bUSD of value in the case the Toledo program meets the high expectations of the Belgian company. Last year in Q4, 2 deals boosted the Q4 2018 total deal value numbers: the oncology deal between Innate Pharma and AstraZeneca, and another oncology deal between argenx and Janssen for cusatuzumab.
Excluding this outlier Galapagos / Gilead deal, at least with respect to the upfront amount, the number of deals inked in Q3 2019 was only 19, all category included. The global trend over the past quarter is not really positive. However, the number of Out-Licensing deals remains on a flat trend as compared to last year (split not provided in this post). The weaker numbers are for the R&D collaborations (usually non-revenue generating properly speaking), and for Supply/Distri deals (revenue generating).
Finally, the growth in Out-Licensing activity specifically for China or Greater China (the "megatrend" we mentioned in our introductory report) tends to be confirmed: there were 8 Out-Licensing deals for China/Greater China in 2018, and we count 12 such deals already in the first 3 quarters of 2019.
The top view deal data are also now available on our homepage.
More details on the distribution by deal category will be available for our service subscribers.