Policy adjustment or asset hard to find? The number of pipeline assets in THE late stages of TOP pharmaceutical companies fell to a ten-year low.

Guide: Due to the current market uncertainty, there is no time to quickly solve this problem in the form of large-scale mergers and acquisitionscompiled theat present, the outbreak of new crown pneumonia abroad is still spreading rapidlyAccording to Baidu's "Real-Time Big Data Report on the Outbreak of New Coronavirus Pneumonia", as of 12:00 on June 18, 2020, more than 8.406 million cases had been confirmed worldwide, 8.321 million cases and 446,000 deaths had been confirmed abroadthe timing of the pandemic could be particularly bad for big pharmaceutical companiesThe number of new late-stage assets in the global TOP pharmaceutical pipeline has been declining for the past four years and is now at a decade-low level, according to an analysis by Evaluate Vantagethe table below shows that not only has the number of acquisitions and permits declined in the New Drug Phase III project, but there has been no compensatory growth in organic developmentThe analysis used historical pipeline data from EvaluatePharma and counted each April to collect new drug projects entering Phase III in the past 12 months, involving the global TOP11 pharmaceutical giantanalysis shows that in April 2016, TOP11 pharmaceutical giant's pipeline had 82 innovative projects, down from 49 in the same period this yearOne explanation is that under the new leadership, the portfolios of companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi have been streamlinedAnother reason may be that many pharmaceutical giants are focusing on oncology and increasingly focusing on brand expansion rather than new drug approvalsThe most representative is Mercado, whose anti-PD-1 treatment Keytruda has been approved for up to 20 therapeutic indicationsnotable, this downward trend is not seen in other relatively small pharmaceutical pipelinesThe table below includes companies with an average market capitalization of $30 billion over the same period, including those that have been acquiredThe number of late pipeline assets of these pharmaceutical companies appears to be fairly stable over the past decade, suggesting that late pipeline contraction is a large pharmaceutical phenomenonThis raises the question of whether the analysis reflects a deliberate focus on resources, or whether assets are becoming more and more difficult to obtainthe ease of financing channels allows young developers to keep their assets and push up valuations Judging by the deals announced so far this year, the start of 2020 has shown a slow momentum, and with this pandemic, the outlook for this year's deal is pretty bad According to Stephanie L?ouzon, partner and head of Torreya Europe, a global investment bank , early asset deals will be more popular in 2020 than late asset deals: "It is easier to complete them if they have to be acquired." We also see a decline in mergers and acquisitions, and continued to be very active across the industry Evan Lippman, head of corporate development, mergers and acquisitions and valuation at takeplace in , believes that due to the current market uncertainty, there is no rapid resolution of the issue in the form of large-scale mergers and acquisitions Any big acquisition that really happens may look different "Pharmaceutical companies are now very focused on capital structure, so we may see more structured deals, more use or valuable rights, rather than direct mergers and acquisitions," says Evan Lippman "
however, few believe that old-fashioned deals are over Andy Pasternak, chief business officer at Horizon Therapeutics, said: "While the COVID-19 pandemic may have a short-term impact on mergers and acquisitions, it is important to remember that most companies are making long-term bets "
perhaps these long-term bets will expand the pipeline in a few years However, judging by the above trading trends, the portfolio of the big pharmaceutical companies will remain relatively small for some time reference source: Big pharma sports smallest-stage for a decade .