Cell & Gene Therapy Deals: Emerging Trends to Watch

From 2010 to 2016 alone, companies executed more than 50 partnerships and investments in efforts to access promising cell and gene therapies. But as the pace of dealmaking accelerates, the unique qualities of these therapies also require dealmakers on both sides to consider innovative and previously untried strategies designed to optimize returns and reduce risk. They are structuring deals to address many factors, including the lack of commercial benchmarks and long-term safety and efficacy data often associated with these products.
To understand how the deal-making landscape is evolving, Lev Gerlovin and Pascale Diesel reviewed more than 30 deals in the sector and compared them to deals that were executed for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) between 1999 and 2013. In this analysis, the authors considered a range of factors, including the size of the companies involved, target indications, terms such as up-front payments and royalties, and the number and clinical stage of assets included in each deal. There is strong consensus that many cell and gene therapies will represent significant advances in standard of care for a range of challenging diseases and conditions, including many rare diseases, and that deal-making for these therapies will grow exponentially in the years ahead.
The authors acknowledge the contributions of Súil​ Collins and Alex David.
To read the article published in Cell & Gene, click here.