This year started with a bang for pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Johnson & Johnson made the largest deal of 2025 in just the first two weeks of January. After that, no other deal reached the same heights. However, even though M&A activity hasn’t been as strong as in past years, drug companies have been focusing on smaller, earlier-stage deals rather than huge, game-changing ones. These deals show us where the industry sees the most potential. It’s no surprise that the two biggest deals of the year are in the field of neuroscience. Big Pharma companies have been hesitant to invest in this area due to mixed results in the past, but now they’re diving back in as scientific knowledge and market prospects improve. Even with economic uncertainty, there’s still a strong case for dealmaking. Many large companies are facing patent expirations that threaten their revenue, and they need to fill these gaps for continued growth. Let’s look at the top three deals of the year so far and what they tell us about where pharma is looking to innovate. The biggest deal of the year was Johnson & Johnson’s $14.6 billion purchase of Intra-Cellular Therapies. This deal aims to boost J&J’s presence in mental health. J&J’s depression drug Spravato has been very successful, bringing in over $1 billion in sales in 2024. Now, J&J is expanding into clinical depression and schizophrenia with Intra-Cellular’s drug Caplyta, which is already on the market and expected to grow. This deal was part of J&J’s plan to focus more on developing new drugs. It was also the biggest deal of the year and even surpassed most M&A activity in 2024. The second-largest deal was Novartis’ $12 billion purchase of Avidity Biosciences. Avidity has a pipeline of treatments for neuromuscular conditions using RNA technology. These treatments target rare diseases like Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Novartis is one of the few large pharma companies still investing heavily in neuroscience. Their successful spinal muscular atrophy gene therapy, Zolgensma, has steady sales despite challenges in the gene therapy space. The third-largest deal of the year was in the hot weight loss market. Pfizer and Novo Nordisk had a bidding war for Metsera, with Pfizer ultimately winning at a price of $10 billion. Pfizer has been eager to enter the weight loss treatment market, and this deal gives them a strong position with a pipeline of potential treatments. Metsera’s lead candidate showed promising results in a mid-stage trial. Pfizer has been rebuilding since the COVID-19 pandemic, and this deal is part of their strategy to invest in the future of pharma, where weight loss treatments are proving to be valuable.