Deals Of The Year 2024 Winners Revealed

For In Vivo's 17th annual Deals of the Year contest, we selected 12 nominees in three categories – Top Alliance, Top Financing and Top M&A. The polls are closed, and it is time to reveal the winners.

Deals of the year
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In Vivo’s editors, along with experts from the Citeline team, selected four top picks for the most significant M&A, alliance and financing deals of 2022. The public votes have been counted and it is time to crown the winners.

Top M&A Of 2024

Polls closed on 10 Feb 2025. Total votes: 212

Gilead Sciences completed its acquisition of CymaBay Therapeutics for $4.3bn in March 2024. This move enhances Gilead’s liver disease portfolio, particularly with CymaBay’s lead product candidate, Livdelzi (seladelpar), a treatment for the chronic liver disease primary biliary cholangitis (PBC).

Livdelzi was approved by the FDA in August 2024, six months after Gilead announced the acquisition. Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald project that Livdelzi could reach peak annual sales of up to $2bn, with RBC Capital Markets suggesting the drug could generate more than $650m annually.

Top Alliances Of 2024

Polls closed on 10 Feb 2025. Total votes: 377

Sanofi and Novavax entered into a co-exclusive licensing agreement valued at approximately $1.2bn in May 2024 to co-commercialize Novavax’s adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine, Nuvaxovid, and develop novel flu-COVID-19 combination vaccines. Sanofi now has the sole license to use Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine in combination with its flu vaccines, while Novavax retains the right to develop its own combination vaccine.

The deal is expected to enhance the convenience and protection offered to patients by combining vaccines for two serious respiratory viruses. Sanofi will also take a minority equity investment in Novavax, further solidifying their partnership. This collaboration is step towards broadening access to non-mRNA adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccines and accelerating the development of combination vaccines that could simplify immunization processes and improve patient outcomes.

Top Financings Of 2024

Polls closed on 10 Feb 2025. Total votes: 241

In February 2024, start-up company Mirador Therapeutics raised more than $400m in Series A round to launch a new company focused on using patient molecular profiles and advances in genetics to develop precision medicines for inflammatory and immunological diseases. ARCH Venture Partners led the round, with early investment from OrbiMed and Fairmount.

The San Diego firm, which comprises ex-Prometheus CEO and multiple other execs from that company, optimizes data and research from the academic sector to quickly develop candidates, with multiple INDs predicted for 2025. The basis for the company’s work will be the Mirador360 platform comprising data from more than one million patient molecular profiles.

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