According to the Bioeconomy Research Center of the Korea Bio Association on the 5th, BioPharma APAC, a specialized biopharmaceutical media outlet, selected the 10 deals that had the greatest impact on the Asia-Pacific market among those concluded from January 1 to September 23 of this year. The selection focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A), licensing agreements, and structured partnerships involving at least one company headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region, while venture capital investment rounds were excluded.
The evaluation took into account not only the total contract value but also the funds for which payment had been confirmed and the changes observed following the transactions. A total of 25 points were allocated to each of four criteria: strategic impact, setting a precedent for future transactions, the ratio of committed to contingent capital, and changes resulting from the transaction.
Accordingly, India’s Sun Pharma’s acquisition of U.S.-based Organon ranked first. The deal, valued at $11.75 billion, was an all-cash acquisition. The partnership between AstraZeneca and China’s CSPC for an obesity treatment, though larger in total value at $18.5 billion, was ranked second because the agreement included contingent milestones.
Among deals involving Korean companies, the transaction between SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS and PolyPeptide, a global peptide contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), ranked sixth with 67 points. The report assessed this deal, valued at approximately $1.8 billion, as a strategic move to secure a leading position in the obesity treatment supply chain. The report highlighted the significance of securing a production base for peptide drugs in response to growing demand for obesity and diabetes treatments. In particular, the deal received high marks for establishing a foundation to control the supply chain for raw materials and production.
The deal between SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS and U.S.-based Biohaven ranked seventh with a score of 66 points. The report cited a confirmed payment of $400 million, with the total contract value amounting to $795 million. Key evaluation factors included the fact that a Korean company made a large upfront payment to secure a U.S. new drug asset before key clinical results were available.
The fact that SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS directly markets the epilepsy treatment Xcopri in the U.S. was also cited as a strategic rationale for the deal, as it allows the company to leverage its already established local business infrastructure. The report noted that the results of the RISE3 clinical trial, scheduled for the second half of this year, will be a key factor in determining the success of this investment.
The licensing agreement between HanmiPharm and Genentech, a subsidiary of Roche, ranked 9th with a score of 58 points. The confirmed payment was reported at $190 million, with the total contract value at $2.3 billion. This is the largest single-pipeline licensing agreement in HanmiPharm’s history.
In this deal, the value of a candidate compound that inhibits muscle loss—a potential side effect of obesity treatment—was highlighted. The agreement is seen as Genentech securing an asset to be used in combination with its obesity and incretin programs, and it is evaluated that the Korean company’s research capabilities in metabolic diseases led to a large upfront payment. However, the fact that the candidate compound is in the Phase 1 clinical trial stage was reflected in the ranking.
Although the agreement between Novartis and Alteogen Inc. did not make the top 10, it was cited as a notable deal. Signed last September, this option and licensing agreement involves the development and commercialization of a subcutaneous injection formulation of a Novartis product using Alteogen Inc.’s ALT-B4 hyaluronidase.
Although the maximum contract value is $3.223 billion, the upfront payment was not disclosed, nor were the specific products covered, leading to assessments that there are limitations in determining the actual investment scale. Consequently, a cap was applied to the score for the “Capital” category, resulting in a total score of just 45 points.
Looking at this year’s transactions as a whole, a striking discrepancy emerged between the total contract value and the amount of funds confirmed for payment. The seven selected technology transfer and licensing deals totaled $54.4 billion, but the amount confirmed for payment was $4.5 billion—a mere 8 percent. In contrast, the three mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals, totaling approximately $16 billion, were recorded as fully confirmed funds.
In four out of ten deals, Asia-Pacific companies emerged as the entities making the payments. These included Sun Pharma, SAMSUNG BIOLOGICS, SK BIOPHARMACEUTICALS, and Japan’s Shionogi. Three of these deals involved the acquisition of U.S. or European companies or assets. This indicates that, alongside the trend of Western pharmaceutical companies introducing Asian technologies, the trend of Asian companies acquiring overseas assets is also expanding.
The contract structures of Chinese new drug developers have also become more diverse. Examples cited include the two-way asset transfer between BMS and Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, the revenue-sharing arrangement for Western markets between Pfizer and Innovent, and the global licensing deal—including China—between AstraZeneca and Dizal. This reflects a shift from simply increasing the total technology transfer amount to negotiating the scope of rights and revenue-sharing methods.
Regional gaps were also evident. In the selected full acquisition deals, Chinese companies did not appear as either acquirers or targets. Companies from Australia and Southeast Asia were also not included in the top 10. While Japanese companies were listed as entities buying and selling businesses, they were not selected as source developers that exported new drug technologies.
