Global investment in biotech and M&A activity across the sector is increasing across private and public capital markets, said Roel Bulthuis, Managing Partner at Syncona, on the panel Forecasting the waves: Biopharma investment landscape at BIO-Europe Spring last week.

This year began “moderately positive” in terms of IPO and M&A activity, though people had expected that this activity would pick up from 2025 more than it did, said Sander Slootweg, Managing Partner at Forbion, in the same panel.

While the conflict in the Middle East, and resulting energy price spikes, may have an impact, the life sciences are not typically linked to the general economy and energy costs, he said.

In fact, tech investors are beginning to put their money in other risk assets such as biotech as rising energy prices hit other technology sectors, like AI, Bulthuis said.

In European biotech and pharma specifically, we have “never had as much money as we have now,” said João Incio, General Partner at Biovance Capital, in the same panel.

Europe is seeing larger investment funds that can sustain private biotech and pharma companies, and reduce reliance on the Nasdaq, Bulthuis said.

Meanwhile, the European Investment Fund (EIF) is the world’s single largest biotech LP, and the European Commission and European Investment Bank (EIB) also mobilised EUR 10bn to invest in the life sciences sector in December, Incio noted.

According to Mergermarket data, there were 336 M&A biotech and pharma deals globally in the first quarter of 2026, totalling EUR 97.5bn. This was more than 43% higher than the 332 deals worth EUR 67.9bn over the same period in 2025.

Source: Mergermarket, data correct as at 01-Apr-2026.

In Europe, however, biotech and pharma M&A activity fell by more than 13% with respect to the same time last year, with 78 deals worth EUR 15.3bn and 108 worth EUR 17.6bn, respectively.

Source: Mergermarket, data correct as at 01-Apr-2026. 

The biggest M&A deal globally in 1Q26 was Eli Lilly’s acquisition of the UK‑based company Centessa Pharmaceuticals for EUR 7.8bn. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson’s EUR 15.1bn acquisition of Intra-Cellular Therapies in 1Q25 was the biggest deal of the year.

The patent cliff facing several key Big Pharma products is going to cause around USD 350bn of revenue losses in the next couple of years, Bulthuis said.

As a result, Big Pharma will need to carry out a lot of M&A deals, said Martin Slezak, Director, Strategic Finance at Lundbeck in the panel Anchoring deals: Navigating M&A and business development in a shifting global market. A thaw of the biotech winter could also see a large comeback for biotech IPOs, he said.

“Both M&A and IPOs make venture capitalists happy, which makes biotech fundraising happy,” said Linda Pullan, Founder of Pullan Consulting, in the same panel.

Dealmakers share growing risk

At the same time, pessimism arises from the growth of macro risks, Slezak said.

Amid the increased risk perception, dealmakers are increasingly structuring their deals with less upfront payments and more milestone payments, said Nick Gagnon, VP, Head of Late Stage Partnering at Ipsen, in the same panel.

One example of this trend was a collaboration between Gilead and Galapagos following Gilead’s USD 2.2bn acquisition of Ouro Medicines last month.

The deal involved Galapagos paying 50% of the upfront and contingent milestone payments to Ouro’s shareholders, and Galapagos absorbing Ouro’s operating assets and employees, per the company release.

The move was a “super interesting deal,” and we are going to see similar risk-offloading deal structures in the future, said Evan Lippman, Executive Vice President of Business Development at Teva Pharmaceuticals in the panel Day in the life of an experienced dealmaker.

Opportunities for Europe

Amid these growing macro risks, Europe has the advantage of a relatively stable environment while the US is facing overhauls in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), threats of tariffs on pharmaceuticals, drug pricing negotiations, and research funding cuts, Bulthuis and Incio noted in the investments panel.

But there is room for improvement in Europe. For example, only 0.02% of pension funds invest in venture capital compared to 2% in the US, and Europe needs to boost this amount, Slootweg said.

To compete with the US Nasdaq, Europe’s dispersed public markets must also achieve a critical mass of specialised public market investors, stock analysts and bankers, he said. The current geopolitical situation is spurring Europe to prioritise this goal with better harmonisation, he added.

Additionally, European drugmakers often migrate to the US, which has the larger end-user markets. Therefore, Europeans should be prepared to pay more for treatments, he said.

“Only if and when we achieve that, I think then we can build a truly thriving and lasting life sciences industry,” Slootweg concluded.