Pharmaceutical/Biotechnology Deal Statistics Quarterly, Q2 2009

Highlights from the Q2 2009 review of pharmaceutical and biotechnology dealmaking: In biopharma financing, the FOPO had a comeback bringing in $773 million with 11 transactions--a deal volume the public markets haven't achieved since Q1 2008. Cephalon and Dendreon led the pack, each with follow-on offerings exceeding the $100 million mark. There weren't the mega Big Pharma mergers done in previous months, however, there was a clear interest in generics as witnessed by Sanofi-Aventis' buyouts of two generics firms, and Watson and Novartis also getting in on the action, each through $1 billion+ acquisitions in this arena as well. As far as alliances were concerned, the top spot belongs to GlobeImmune, which granted Celgene exclusive worldwide rights to its {Targomen} cancer programs (including two clinical-stage candidates) in exchange for a potential $540 million pay day.Q2 also saw many companies shifting therapeutic focus to in-license products and candidates new to them in order to revive pipelines and beef up portfolios.