Drug dealers: $20 trillion of in-licensing payments

To help understand the trends of in-licensing, we analysed 781 in-licensing deals costing over $20 trillion over a period of 17 years and found that, while the number of FDA approvals is decreasing, the upfront price paid for drug in-licensing is increasing. Moreover, these upfront payments were not immune to the recent economic downturn, where the yearly increase in upfront payments halted in years 2008-2012. The cost of buying drugs also steadily increased from early research compounds to Phase III drugs. A relative decrease in upfront payments in Filed phase versus to Phase III was seen, which may reflect reluctance in buying filed drugs that are facing the 'patent cliff'. The data here also showed no obvious difference in upfront payments made in five major disease areas, namely, oncology, cardiovascular disease, autoimmunity, nervous system and metabolic disorders.