Q1 2024 witnessed a flurry of R&D partnerships, highlighting significant collaboration. Argo Biopharmaceutical partnered with Novartis, securing $185 million upfront and a potential $4 billion for RNA-based therapies. MOMA Therapeutics partnered with Roche, receiving $66 million upfront and a potential $2 billion in milestones. Ribo Life Science and Ribocure granted Boehringer exclusive rights in a $2 billion deal. Umoja Biopharma teamed up with AbbVie for a potential $1.4 billion. Gilead Sciences joined forces with Merus, offering $56 million upfront and $25 million in equity, with potential milestones of $1.5 billion. More details to follow.
R&D Partnerships – Biopharma Tx & Platforms
Q1 2024 saw 115 R&D partnerships worth $36 billion, including $2.2 billion in upfront cash and equity. A decrease from the previous quarter’s 136 deals valued at $72.3 billion, with $7.6 billion in upfront cash and equity.
R&D Partnerships – Biopharma Tx & Platforms
Combined data for Q4 2023 & Q1 2024 had 251 R&D partnership deals in the biopharma industry totaling $108.3 billion, including $9.8 billion in upfront cash and equity.
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R&D Partnerships – Biopharma Tx vs. Other Life Sciences
So far, in 2024, most R&D partnerships were concentrated on therapeutic platforms and biopharma, with 104 deals totaling $29.3 billion. Other subsectors had fewer partnerships: 4 in medtech, 30 in diagnostics, sequencing, and omics, totaling $6.3 billion, and 6 deals in manufacturing tech, totaling $1.2 billion.
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R&D Partnerships – Biopharma Tx vs. Other Life Sciences
During 2023, there were 527 partnerships, mainly in therapeutic platforms and biopharma, making 423 deals worth $154.3 billion. Other subsectors had fewer deals but significant contributions: 34 in medtech, devices, digital therapeutics, and wearables totaled $0.1 billion; 135 in diagnostics, sequencing, omics, and tools totaled $16 billion; and 26 in manufacturing tech and other areas totaled $8.1 billion.
Biopharma R&D Partnerships – Top Modalities
From 2023 to YTD 2024, biologics, antibodies, DNA, RNA, and proteins led R&D partnerships with 225 worth $107 billion, including $8.5 billion in upfront cash and equity. Small molecules followed closely with 157 deals totaling $48.3 billion, while genomics, sequencing, and screening technologies saw 60 amounting to $19.8 billion. Additionally, significant investments were made in gene therapy and vectors (29 deals), cell therapy (41 deals), and gene editing/CRISPR (20 deals), accumulating billions of dollars. Immunotherapy had 17 deals valued at $2.7 billion. These modalities comprised 549 partnerships worth $203.4 billion, with $13.8 billion in upfront cash and equity.
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R&D Partnerships for Q1 2024
Argo Biopharmaceutical Partnered with Novartis (January 2024)
Argo Biopharmaceutical granted Novartis exclusive global rights to develop Phase I RNA-based therapy for cardiovascular diseases, with an option for 2 additional therapies. Argo will receive an initial payment of $185 million and could receive up to $4 billion in option exercise fees and development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.
MOMA Therapeutics Partnered with Roche (January 2024)
MOMA Therapeutics gave Roche exclusive global rights to utilize MOMA’s KnowledgeBase platform for cancer treatment. MOMA will handle development up to confirmation, with Roche taking over afterward. MOMA will receive an upfront payment of $66 million and could receive up to $2 billion in development, regulatory, and commercial milestones.
Ribo Life Science and Ribocure Granted Boehringer Exclusive Rights (January 2024)
Ribo Life Science and Ribocure gave Boehringer exclusive global rights to develop and market small interfering RNA (siRNA) therapies for treating NASH/MASH using Ribo’s RIBO-GalSTAR platform. Ribo will receive an upfront payment, which remains undisclosed. The total deal value is $2 billion, based solely on the disclosed amount.
Umoja Biopharma Partnered with AbbVie (January 2024)
Umoja Biopharma granted AbbVie an exclusive global option to license the development and commercialization of CAR-T cell therapies, including UB-VV111, for treating hematologic cancer. Umoja will receive an undisclosed upfront payment in cash and equity and could receive up to $1.4 billion in option exercise fees, development, regulatory and commercial milestones.
Gilead Sciences Partnered with Merus (March 2024)
Gilead Sciences partnered with Merus to discover and develop two antibody-based tri-specific T-cell engagers for cancer treatment. Merus will receive an upfront payment of $56 million in cash and $25 million in equity. They are also eligible for up to $1.5 billion in option payments, development, commercial milestones, and mid-single to low-double-digit tiered royalties.
