Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Deal Statistics Quarterly, Q4 2008
Highlights from the Q4 2008 review of pharmaceutical and biotechnology dealmaking: Financing dollar volume was only one-fourth that of Q3 with 57 deals bringing in over $1.09 billion, with no IPOs or FOPOs, but early-stage VC rounds accounting for 41% of this total. M&A dollars also were down: $7.6 billion in Q4--versus the $25.2 billion of the previous quarter--and contributing just 15% to the category's 2008 annual total. Alliances saw the most activity, boasting ten deals with pre-commercialization values greater than $100 million. Five of those were over $275 million, including Bristol-Myers Squibb Inc.'s $850 million tie up with Exelixis Inc., not only the fourth quarter's highest, but the second-largest alliance of the year.