Foreword
As we launched into 2024, hopes were moderately high for dealmaking and the wider financial landscape in pharma. M&A and IPOs were picking up, offering investors the exit opportunities they need. But the second quarter of the year reversed that trend with fairly significant drops in the number and value of deals taking place, and just three companies hitting the public markets.
The M&A figure is slightly misleading as the first quarter was boosted significantly by the acquisition of Catalent by Novo Nordisk as they strive to overcome the supply challenges associated with their GLP-1 products. There are no such caveats in the IPO picture though, but if we cheat and look at the first couple of weeks of the third quarter, it does look like the hopes of Q1 might not be entirely dashed.
More positively, private funding has had a much better quarter with over $8b raised across 143 companies. This may seem like a small win compared to the heights of the pandemic, but it’s also a far cry from the lows that followed. At this stage, biotechs will be grateful for any potential opportunities to extend their cash runways.
In this eBook, we dig into some of the detail behind the headline figures of what is clearly still a very bumpy recovery. With the wider geopolitical and macroeconomic climate still also rather uncertain, all eyes (particularly those in biotech organisations) will be on the latter half of the year to provide more steps forward and, ideally, fewer steps back.
Meanwhile, let’s step into the detail of Q2. Best foot forward…
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