Top 20 life sciences deals of 2025 point to a hotter M&A market

PharmaShots has published its Top 20 Life Sciences Deals of 2025 report, built with DealForma data, offering a snapshot of where capital and strategic attention flowed across biopharma last year. The list highlights a market led by large oncology, obesity, and platform deals, including BioNTech’s partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb on BNT327 at about $11.1 billion in potential value, Takeda’s oncology partnership with Innovent at roughly $11.4 billion, and Roche’s obesity collaboration with Zealand Pharma worth up to $5.3 billion. DealForma’s broader 2025 review shows life sciences M&A rebounded sharply, with 585 transactions and $269.3 billion in announced value including contingents, nearly double 2024 levels. (linkedin.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this isn’t a companion animal deal story on its face, but it is a useful signal about where human health investors and drug developers are placing long-term bets. The biggest 2025 deals clustered around oncology, cardiometabolic disease, and AI-enabled discovery, areas that often shape translational research, talent movement, manufacturing capacity, and investor expectations across animal health, too. Deloitte also found pharma accounted for more than half of 2025 life sciences deal value, with buyers favoring larger, more strategic, and more de-risked assets. (deloitte.com)

What to watch: Watch whether this 2025 deal rebound spills further into animal health through licensing, diagnostics, AI tools, and crossover investment themes in 2026. (dealforma.com)