At $17.96bn, first quarter 2019 biopharma financing showed a significant increase over Q4 2018's $10.9bn, yet it was actually on par with 2018's opening quarter – which brought in total fundraising of $16.6bn– once again demonstrating a solid start to the year. The most Q1 financing dollars came from follow-on public offerings, accounting for $5.3bn, or 30% of the total (see Exhibit 1). This category featured $100m-plus offerings by 18 companies centered around various therapeutic areas. In the largest FOPO of Q1, Sage Therapeutics Inc. (selective allosteric GABA-A and NMDA receptor modulation) netted $561m, which it will put toward the US commercial launch of Zulresso (SAGE547; brexanolone injection) for postpartum depression (it was just approved in March 2019 Also see "Zulresso Is Sage’s First Step In Postpartum Depression Treatment" - Scrip, 20 March, 2019.); ongoing development of and initial pre-commercial activities for oral GABA-A modulator SAGE217 in major depressive disorder and insomnia (Phase III) and bipolar depression (Phase II); and advancement of Phase I oral candidates SAGE324 (essential tremor and epileptiform disorders) and SAGE718 (cognition-related disorders, including Huntington’s disease) [See Deal].
Biopharma Quarterly Dealmaking Statistics, Q1 2019
A Look At Financing, M&A And Alliance Activity January-March 2019
First quarter biopharma financing, at $17.96bn, demonstrated a 65% increase over Q4 2018. The $92bn in total M&A activity was led by Bristol-Myers Squibb's $74bn buy of top-tier public biotech Celgene. At $39.4bn in total potential deal value, alliance dealmaking started off 2019 strong, with most of the top partnerships in modalities outside the recently popular areas of immune checkpoint inhibitors or CAR-T therapies.
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