April 23, 2024
After enduring subdued markets in 2023 following an earlier boom, biotech market sentiment has showed demonstrable improvement in early 2024, and M&A activity is one visible sign of that.
The year got off to a strong start with 4 of the top 10 deals being announced at JPM.
There was an even mix of both private and public targets, even though public targets accounted for ~80% of total deal value.
Among the targets which were public, Harpoon Therapeutics and Ambrx had the highest acquisition premiums, at 118% and 105% respectively from their last closing price.
Among private targets, GSK's acquisition of Aiolos Bio was particularly notable, given the company launched publicly only ~6 months ago with a monster $245M Series A.
One notable trend among recent M&A is that many deals are more competitive than before, driven by the fact that more disciplined capital markets are prioritizing the highest-quality companies. This has lead to a situation that while fewer companies may be raising late-stage rounds compared to the boom years, those that are have differentiated assets that command a premium.
Overall, M&A activity, fundraising, and public market performance in Q1 have all shown positive signs, which sets up 2024 to be a strong year for the industry.
