STAT+: Pharma goes on a spending spree, snapping up biotechs in a hurry
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- Pharma companies struck 33 biotech acquisitions valued at $1 billion or more in the past six months, the latest being AbbVie's deal for Apogee Therapeutics announced Monday.
- Pharmaceutical and large biotech buyers collectively spent approximately $134 billion on these 33 deals, according to the report.
- Deal pace has roughly doubled compared to 2025, when pharma completed 26 blockbuster M&A transactions totaling $112 billion — a full-year figure now matched in half the time.
- Acquisition activity spans both large pharmaceutical companies and major biotech firms acting as buyers, expanding the pool of capital chasing pipeline assets.
- The AbbVie-Apogee deal caps the six-month run and is positioned as the most recent high-water mark in a sustained dealmaking wave.
Why it matters: The $134 billion spent in six months already exceeds 2025's full-year total of $112 billion, meaning deal velocity — not just deal size — has sharply accelerated. With 33 billion-dollar-plus acquisitions already on the books versus 26 for all of 2025, big pharma is deploying capital at a pace that signals aggressive replenishment of drug pipelines heading into 2026.
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