Stay informed with BioPharma Dive’s free newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox. In the world of drug development, business deals can be just as crucial as scientific discoveries. Many of today’s top-selling drugs, like the cancer treatment Keytruda and the anti-inflammatory agent Enbrel, might not have succeeded without mergers and acquisitions. At the end of the last decade, pharmaceutical companies made record-breaking deals, often focusing on areas like cancer, rare diseases, and immune system disorders. These areas showed significant progress in clinical trials and generated substantial profits. However, 2021 and 2022 saw a slowdown in dealmaking due to new challenges and rising interest rates. Recently, there are signs of a rebound, with companies looking to expand in areas like obesity and investing in newer technologies. BioPharma Dive is tracking these mergers and acquisitions, updating a database that includes drugmaker buyouts valued at $50 million or more since 2018. The database focuses on companies developing human medicines and includes only entire company acquisitions, not product licensings or partial equity stakes. Deals with upfront payments less than $50 million or unspecified are not included. Premiums are calculated using the acquired company’s share price from the previous trading day. Each acquired company is categorized by one therapeutic area, based on its lead asset or classified under ‘other’ if multiple focuses are present. The tracker is updated when deals are announced, and entries are removed if transactions fall through or updated if another company outbids the original acquirer. According to a new BioPharma Dive analysis, corporate-related funds like Novo Holdings, Eli Lilly, and Sanofi Ventures have been active investors in biotech startups this year. Servier’s buyout of Day One is the second-largest biotech acquisition so far, following Gilead’s $7.8 billion purchase of cell therapy maker Arcellx. Stay updated with the free daily newsletter read by industry experts.