Welcome to Part 4 of our 2026 Life Sciences Industry Outlook series. Today, we’re looking at life sciences collaborations and licensing activity in 2025 and what it may signal for 2026.
2025 life sciences licensing activity remained resilient and increasingly sophisticated, with stable deal volume, heightened structural customization, and growing geopolitical and technology-driven considerations shaping how biotechs and large pharmaceutical companies approach partnerships heading into 2026.
Licensing and collaboration activity in the life sciences sector remained robust through 2025, supported by sustained demand for externally sourced innovation and disciplined capital deployment. Large pharmaceutical companies, in particular, utilized licensing as a surgical tool to address near-term pipeline gaps ahead of the “2026–2030 patent cliff.”
Global biopharma licensing transactions in the first three quarters of 2025 reached approximately $181.5 billion in announced deal value. While this pace is up slightly versus 2024’s full-year $188.6 billion, deal volume reflected a pronounced “flight to quality.” Licensees showed a renewed interest in earlier-stage platforms in selected high-growth areas, while late-stage, de-risked assets continued to command premium economics.
This pattern is exemplified by Gibson Dunn’s representation of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals in its global licensing and collaboration agreement with Novartis for its ARO-SNCA program. This deal—featuring a $200 million upfront payment and up to $2 billion in milestones—demonstrates how high-conviction partners rely on structured alliances to access platform innovation while surgically allocating development, manufacturing, and commercialization risk.
Therapeutically, metabolic disease and weight-loss programs remained a primary engine of activity in 2025. Building on the GLP-1 momentum of 2024, partners increasingly competed for “next-generation” assets offering differentiation on dosing convenience and long-term cardiometabolic outcomes, rather than first-generation efficacy alone.
The Arrowhead-Novartis transaction also underscores a broader neurology rebound. After years of secondary status to oncology, high-value bets in neurodegenerative diseases (like Parkinson’s) surged, signaling a renewed pharma appetite for large-market, high-unmet-need categories where RNAi and other novel modalities are finally showing clinical scalability.
The geopolitical landscape exerted a definitive influence on the sector with the enactment of the BIOSECURE Act in December 2025. This legislation has precipitated a fundamental restructuring of global supply chains, turning manufacturing and CRO diligence into top-tier deal hurdles. Strategic partnerships in 2026 are now incorporating sophisticated provisions focused on supply chain sovereignty, including “step-in” rights and remediation triggers tied to a partner’s regulatory designation.
Cross-border licensing involving China reached a historic peak in 2025. Through the end of Q3 of 2025, approximately 38% of major global biopharma deals originated from Chinese companies, accounting for roughly 30% of total upfront payments. This trend underscores the role of China-origin innovation as an essential contributor to global pipelines. Looking ahead to 2026, this activity is expected to remain high but will be increasingly structured around heightened CFIUS and national security screening considerations, operational separability, data provenance, and supply-chain independence.
Heading into 2026, the licensing landscape should balance a continued appetite for high-value assets with regulatory and technology headwinds. The 2026 market likely will be defined by structural sophistication over volume expansion. Strategic collaborations that integrate global development rights, risk-sharing models, and technology-enabled R&D are likely to remain central to sustaining innovation in the year ahead.