Introduction
As we cross the mid-year mark, will we see a swing in fortunes? Biopharma share prices were lean in the first quarter of 2023, but the past three months served up some optimism. The promise of treatments for obesity have been a key driver, plumping up the valuations of Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Yet, the end of Covid's windfall saw Pfizer, Moderna and BioNTech’s market cap continue to decline. More broadly, despite some losers, big pharma had a turnaround in fortunes compared to the first quarter, when this cohort lost over $200bn in value.
The recent surge in biopharma M&A shows promise, but investors remain lukewarm as regulatory uncertainties continue to cloud the growth outlook. Venture financing ticked upward, yet there’s a clear concentration of cash among a select few. Stirring once more, IPO activity hints at a possible recovery.
In the medtech sphere, 45 innovative products were cleared or approved by the FDA in H1 2023 alone, just shy of the entire 2022 total. By contrast, dealmaking has nearly flatlined. M&A activity and venture rounds are scant, and IPOs are nowhere to be found. The deals we have seen lean more towards divestitures rather than innovative acquisitions, with precisely zero new medtech IPOs in the first half of 2023.
This eBook offers a deeper exploration of the forces shaking up the biopharma and medtech markets in H1 2023.