Biopharma funding fell 20% last year, reversing the post-pandemic recovery as the IPO haul dropped to the lowest level of the past 10 years. IQVIA shared the data in a report that tracked surges in the number of deals with Chinese biotechs and agreements worth more than $2 billion.
Companies raised $82 billion across public and private rounds in 2025, down from $102 billion the prior year. The collapse of follow-on financings, which dropped from $46 billion to $30 billion, and IPOs drove the decline. At $3 billion, the amount raised in IPOs set a 10-year low, falling short of even the $4 billion raised in 2023. Private rounds and fundings classed as “public/other” held steady.
The funding data look stronger when viewed over a longer timeline. While follow-on funding fell versus 2024, when Bristol Myers Squibb’s debt inflated the figures, 2025 was still the third-best year of the past decade. Similarly, overall funding was well above the pre-pandemic norm and only topped by 2020, 2021 and 2024.
IQVIA reported an uptick in R&D deals, tracking a reversal of a slide that began after the 2021 peak. An increase in deals between emerging biopharma companies, defined as businesses with estimated annual R&D budgets of $200 million or less, drove the growth.
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Takeovers and licensing deals involving China-headquartered companies grew, climbing from 71 in 2024 to 94 in 2025. U.S. drugmakers drove the trend, with North American and European companies involved in 73% of the deals with Chinese companies.
Ten of the Chinese deals were valued at more than $2 billion. The deals were part of a wider shift toward big bets. In 2025, companies struck 68 M&A, alliance or licensing deals valued at more than $2 billion, up from 27 the previous year. The total value of the big deals was $360 billion, compared to $102 billion in 2024.
Oncology accounted for 25% of the number of big deals and 32% of the value of the agreements. Obesity and metabolic diseases and neurology were the next two most active areas, in terms of both deal value and deal number.
The types of cancer drug candidates included in deals have shifted in recent years. Overall, IQVIA tracked little change in the modality mix over the past seven years, with more than half of deals still involving small molecules. But deals involving antibody-drug conjugates and radiopharmaceuticals—hot oncology modalities—increased more than 300% and 65%, respectively, between 2019 and 2025.
