Bretisilocin

As the markets have tightened, biopharma companies have gotten creative with their dealmaking structures in recent years. One route — the single-asset deal — has become popular in 2025. Eli Lilly , Sanofi , GSK and AbbVie have all taken the approach this year, with AbbVie’s acquisition of a psychedelic compound from its existing partner Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals as the latest example. Some of the single-asset deals include a “spin-co” model, with Pfizer’s Biohaven deal in 2022 setting the blueprint, and more companies have followed suit in 2025, like Scorpion Therapeutics’ deal with Lilly in January. Pfizer paid $11.6 billion for Biohaven, but mainly wanted just the approved migraine drug Nurtec ODT. So the New York pharma giant spun out the bulk of the pipeline into a new company that retained the Biohaven name. Today, Biohaven has about a dozen drug candidates across obesity, epilepsy, depression, cancer and other I&I conditions. Industry experts told Endpoints News they believe the single-asset acquisition and the spin-co model will continue to be attractive, even though these two approaches represent only a sliver of the 30-plus M&A deals in the drug development industry that have been announced so far this year. “It just makes sense,” Raymond James banker Brian Gleason said in an email. “The vast majority of acquisitions, particularly small to midsize, are entirely driven by one lead asset, independent of the target’s pipeline away from that lead. The additional pipeline assets aren’t part of the valuation and often their path forward, if included as part of the acquisition, is unclear.” Many acquisitions start as discussions around collaborations, licensing deals or some other form of partnership. In the end, value is typically ascribed to the lead program. But biotech companies with multiple assets and/or a platform that can be applied to many areas will want to continue developing it; they don’t want it to get lost in the shuffle of a major pharma’s R&D engine. “Gilgamesh was still founder-led, and they as a team have a lot more work to do. And that’s why this structure in particular for them was really exciting, because AbbVie was most interested in the single product,” said Hannah England, a life sciences partner on the Ropes & Gray legal team. They advised Gilgamesh on its deal to sell the Phase 2-stage bretisilocin to AbbVie for up to $1.2 billion, which was announced this week. England’s colleague, Matt Byron, said deal shapes are quite fluid until inked. “I’ve seen these discussions start one way and the structure change four or five times over the course of the deal lifecycle,” Byron said in a joint interview. Sometimes, companies go into the discussions with a clear picture in mind. Dren Bio made a “ deliberate decision” to “pursue a single-asset acquisition deal,” CBO Amit Mehta said in an email. The biotech sold a B cell-depleting antibody to Sanofi this spring for $600 million upfront. More could come Dren’s way via biobucks. The California startup also did the collaboration route in the past with Novartis and a licensing pact with Pfizer . “Sanofi’s focus is on acquiring specific assets and technologies that align with its strategic goals,” a spokesperson for the French pharma company said in an emailed statement. “Acquiring the entire company was not necessary to achieve these objectives.” As for Scorpion’s spin-co pact with Lilly, it sold to the Indianapolis drugmaker for up to $2.5 billion , but Lilly’s eyes were mainly on a PI3Kα inhibitor. The rest of the pipeline got spun out into a new company called Antares Therapeutics, which has already fueled up with $177 million. Adam Friedman led Scorpion and continued as CEO of the spin-co. He previously told Endpoints the spin-co model was appealing because it allowed shareholders to get money rather than betting that all parts of a licensing pact would fully come to fruition. It also allowed for most of the Scorpion team to keep working on the rest of the pipeline. Scorpion had been “very close” to an IPO but went with the M&A deal instead, he previously said. Boston Pharma, meanwhile, was also considering an IPO while entertaining pharma discussions, said Sophie Kornowski, who was CEO of the drug developer when it sold to GSK earlier this year for $1.2 billion . GSK also did a single-asset acquisition of a T cell engager from China-based Chimagen last year . Boston Pharma once had a bustling roster of 20 assets, but whittled it down to focus on a MASH drug — and that’s what GSK bought. Other assets, including a liver cancer asset, are in discussions for moving on elsewhere, Kornowski said, adding that the assets were placed in separate C corporations. An M&A deal is never guaranteed, though, and biotech management teams must chug along while going through deal discussions. “You always have to think you need to be independent. At the end, you are working towards having the best-in-class and best-in-disease drug in development and eventually be ready to market it yourself,” Kornowski said. “This is the only way for you to keep the timelines and not lower your target profile over time. You need to set up a high bar and stick to it, which is incredibly difficult.” If the capital markets thaw, Byron said the industry “might see that take away from some of the momentum for” single-asset and spin-co deals, but these deal structures will likely continue intriguing both the buy-side and sell-side.