Summary of global pharmaceutical M&A in 2022

In 2022, the overall sentiment of pharmaceutical M&A began to pick up, and funds and attention were mainly concentrated in the field of tumors and rare diseases, and the drug form was mainly
traditional small molecule and protein drugs.

1.
Overview

2.
TOP 10 amounts

3.
TOP 10 premium

4.
Disease areas

5.
Phases

6.
Drug form

7.
Month

8.
epilogue

Overview

By tracing the origin of more than 1,000 news reports, excluding backdoor listing events in the SPAC manner, there were about 114 M&A incidents in the pharmaceutical field in 2022, of which 11 were mergers and acquisitions
.
The total amount of M&A disclosed in 2022 was $84.
863 billion, up from $76.
317 billion in 2021 and down from $117.
641 billion in 2020, and industry sentiment began to repair
.

TOP 10 amounts

The highest pharmaceutical acquisition in 2022 was Amgen's acquisition of $28.
3 billion worth of Horizon, compared to CSL's acquisition of Vifor by $11.
7 billion in 2021 Pharma is much
taller.
Horizon, a pharmaceutical company that started with compound preparations and began to enter the field of rare diseases in 2014, has sales of more than $1 billion in its second year of marketing, reaching $1.
661 billion
.
For more stories about Horion, see "Behind the $28.
3 billion Acquisition: Horizon that Started as a Compound Preparation and Became a Rare Disease Giant
.
"

Figure 1 Top 10 pharmaceutical acquisitions in 2022 (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

Compared with the previous two years, the biggest feature in 2022 is that 7 of the acquired companies are in the commercialization stage, compared with 5 in 2021 and 3 in 2020
.
For large-scale acquisitions, big pharma is increasingly concerned about whether they can improve their statements in the short term
.

TOP 10 premium

In 2022, AstraZeneca/Alexander acquired LogicBio, a gene therapy company
with leading products in Phase 1/2 clinical stage, at a premium of 666%.
The second highest premium rate is also a gene therapy company, with a premium rate of 344%.

Gene therapy companies have experienced a large influx of hot money and capital winter brushing over the years, as more and more data are read, a large number of companies have to face the dilemma of low stock prices due to the unsmooth progress of research and development, and many cigarette butt stocks have been born, thus giving birth to M&A events with a super high premium rate
.

For some of the encounters of the gene therapy industry in the past 3 years, please check "Gene therapy with more than 5 Nobel Prize achievements, both the outlet and the eye"
.

Figure 2 Top 10 pharmaceutical premium acquisitions in 2022 (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

Disease areas

The disease area with the most acquisition events in 2022 is still oncology, while the rare disease field has a slight increase
.
Big pharmaceutical companies in the field of oncology include Takeda (γδ-T cell adapter), Boehringer Ingelheim (conditionally activated cytokines), Gilead (CAR-T), AstraZeneca (T cell adapter), Roche (conditionally activated cytokines), Regeneron (innate immune system activator), BMS (targeted therapy), Merck (epigenetics), GSK (rare tumors).

Big pharmaceutical companies in the field of rare diseases include Johnson & Johnson (mTORC1), AstraZeneca (gene therapy), Eli Lilly (gene therapy), Pfizer (small molecule, sickle cell anemia), Novo Nordisk (small molecule, sickle cell anemia), Amgen (antibodies).

Fig.
3 Distribution of indications of pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022, by number of events (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

Although the field of oncology has the most M&A events, the investment of funds is mainly concentrated in the field of
rare diseases.

Figure 4 Distribution of indications of pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022, by amount (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

stage

In 2022, as in 2021 and 2020, the leading products of the acquired companies are still concentrated in the preclinical stage and commercialization stage, reflecting the two extremes of the pharmaceutical company's strategy, extreme reality (commercial products enrich cash flow) and extreme fantasy (cutting-edge products maintain strategic heights).

Figure 5 Distribution of pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022, by event (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

The concentration of M&A amounts in 2022 is increasingly concentrated in companies in the commercialization stage, reaching 73%, up from more than 50% in 2020 and 2021
.
In addition to the acquirer's concern for the statement as mentioned above, the possibility that the continuation of the capital winter has led to lower prices for the company, which further highlights the investment value
of the company in the commercialization stage.

Figure 6 Distribution of pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022, by amount (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

Drug form

In terms of drug forms, small molecule and protein drugs account for the vast majority
.
Proteins include antibodies, fusion proteins, cytokines, etc
.
While ADC/XDC, RNA therapy, gene therapy and cell therapy, which are more active in investment, financing or trading, M&A events
are less likely to occur.

The following is a separate category of improved new drugs, including liposomes, microneedle array patches, transdermal drug delivery preparations, subcutaneous implants, nanocapsules, compound preparations, nasal sprays, etc
.
The number of M&A incidents that have occurred in such pharmaceutical companies is not uncommon
.

Fig.
7 Distribution of drug forms in pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022, by event (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

In terms of value, small molecules and protein drugs account for almost 90% of the share, while the pharmaceutical companies of improved new drugs are relatively less "valuable"
.

Fig.
8 Distribution of drug forms in pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022, by amount (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

month

According to the monthly distribution, from the perspective of the number of events and the number of amounts, the M&A sentiment of medicine will gradually warm up
in 2022.
The highest number of M&A incidents occurred in October, with 16
.
The highest M&A amount occurred in December, largely due to Amgen's acquisition of Horizon.

Figure 9 Monthly distribution of pharmaceutical acquisition events in 2022 (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

The following figure shows an overview of the 2022 pharmaceutical M&A events
.
For 2021 acquisitions, please refer to the "Summary Analysis of Global Pharmaceutical Acquisitions in 2021"
.
For 2020 acquisitions, please refer to the "Summary and Analysis of Biomedical Acquisitions in 2020"
.

Figure 10 Overview of pharmaceutical acquisitions in 2022 (compiled by Fengshuo Venture Capital)

epilogue

In 2022, pharmaceutical M&A sentiment gradually warmed up, and the continuation of the capital winter led to the emergence of many cigarette butt stocks, making the premium rate in 2022 much higher than in previous years
.

Even if the valuation of the entire industry is at a very low historical low, cash-rich big pharmaceutical companies have not increased the number of shots as people think, such as Pfizer, which has only made 3 shots in 2022
.
Sanofi, who shot 6 times in 2021, did not shoot once in 2022
.
As always, the big pharmaceutical companies are laying out
the layout step by step according to their company's pipeline strategy.

So who will become the top 10 acquisition amount in 2023 may be inseparable from the following keywords, market value of billions or tens of billions, rare disease enterprises in the field of rare diseases (leading pipelines in the advanced or commercialization stage) or oncology companies (leading pipelines in the early and mid-stage clinical stages), drug forms are mainly
traditional small molecule or protein drugs.