Licensing agreements are decreasing in the rare disease space in favor of more complex collaborations and partnerships. Indeed, of the strategic alliances formed by the top ten bio/pharma companies (by market cap) in the last year, 17% were in the rare diseases space, according to the GlobalData Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center Deals Database.

Madeleine Roche, Associate Analyst at GlobalData comments: “The recent partnership deal between pharmaceutical giant Takeda Pharmaceutical Co and private biotech Evox Therapeutics, completed in March 2020 and valued at $882m, is an example of how big pharma companies are searching for innovative biotechs to invest in the rare diseases space.”

Roche continued: “An emerging trend towards early stage rare disease deals – as noted by Jazz Parmaceuticals’ Executive Vice-President Robert Lannone at the BIO 2020 conference last month – has been highlighted by high-profile partnerships such as the co-development deal between Gilead Sciences and Galapagos NV in August 2019, valued at over $6.5m.”

Data from the GlobalData Pharmaceutical Intelligence Center Deals Database also support this, showing that licensing agreements in the rare diseases space have decreased by 40% over the last five years.