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For much of the past year, efforts by biopharma companies to rein in the COVID-19 pandemic have dominated the news coming out of the health care sector. The industry’s response – developing vaccines and treatments for the novel coronavirus in less than a year – is one for the record books. But as the end of the pandemic comes into sight, we believe health care’s achievements are only getting started. Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 52 novel drugs, excluding medicines for COVID-19. That sum is not far from the 2018 record of 59 and occurred despite lockdown measures that closed labs and slowed drug-manufacturing site inspections At the same time, some of the first COVID-19 vaccines to be granted emergency use authorization were based on advance drug modalities that previously had never moved beyond the research lab.

Torreya, a leading global investment banking boutique providing mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, and licensing advisory services to life sciences companies, today released a report sharing broad optimism for the pharmaceutical sector in 2021. They analyze recent market and political factors to predict strong markets for drug sales, private investment, and vertical M&A activities.

An update from Torreya highlighting the unprecedented level of capital raised for new healthcare venture capital funds. They also report an uptick in biotech M&A activity in Q3 2020 following a decline in the first half of the year due to COVID-19.

Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges for its role in creating the nation's opioid crisis and will pay more than $8 billion and close down the company. The money will go to opioid treatment and abatement programs. The privately held company has agreed to pay a $3.5 billion fine as well as forfeit an additional $2 billion in past profits, in addition to the $2.8 billion it agreed to pay in civil liability.

California Life Sciences Association (CLSA), the trade association representing California’s life sciences industry, today released the 2020 California Life Sciences Sector Report, which shows that California’s life sciences sector directly employed 323,723 people, generated $191.6 billion in revenue, is projected to attract $6.5 billion in venture capital (VC) and received $4.5 billion in funding from the NIH. Produced with PwC US, the 2020 snapshot highlights the strength of California’s biomedical sector – the largest cluster in the world – as evidenced by significant increases in employment, earnings, graduating science and engineering PhDs, VC investment and potential new drugs and medical devices in the pipeline.