For pharma companies, biotech assets present significant opportunities to strengthen pipelines with reduced risk. However, with such a vast ecosystem, identifying the right assets that align with your strategy can be a challenge. Whether the dealmaking goal is a quick win in a major market or securing an innovative product early, finding the most valuable assets at a reasonable price is no easy feat. So, how do companies discover hidden gems – or even the next blockbuster?
In our new on-demand webinar, my colleague Ben Folwell and I discuss the key steps that we recommend you take to identify the assets that will secure your pipeline for the future. There’s much more detail in the session, but here is a quick summary.

1. Generate a long list: Begin by considering a wide range of parameters, including in-licencing availability in key regions, unmet medical needs, development feasibility, competition, predicted peak sales, launch timelines, probability of technical success, regulatory status, and market potential. Yes, it’s a lot (though the good news is that this is the sort of data that we have at our disposal)! Broader parameters help generate the initial long list of assets, which you can then refine using more specific criteria to prioritise the best-fit opportunities for further evaluation.
2. Prioritise, using a structured approach: The next step is to create a prioritisation tool, often built in Excel, which provides a structured approach to decision-making. This allows you to apply relative weightings to key factors, such as clinical potential, market size, and competitive landscape. This way, each asset can be ranked according to its importance to the overall strategy. You can then compare assets quantitatively, using metrics like predicted sales, development feasibility, and regulatory status. This helps highlight strengths and weaknesses, making it easier to identify assets that stand out.
3. Analyse comparable deals: Once you’ve identified the assets of interest, and the therapeutic area, modality, and strategic plan for in-licencing are clear, it’s time to understand how these elements will impact a potential deal. This involves conducting a deal benchmarking analysis, where you evaluate comparable deals to provide insights into how similar assets were valued and structured in the market. By benchmarking against relevant transactions, you can gauge the financial and strategic impact of the assets you’re interested in, helping you to prepare for dealmaking negotiations and ensure that any potential deal aligns with your business objectives.
4. Evaluate past deals using case studies: Next, you can dig deeper into analogous historical deals. A qualitative case study approach allows you to assess why certain deals were successful while others failed. By examining whether products met key milestones, and how the deals impacted the assets’ development, you can extract valuable lessons to inform their strategy. This evaluation helps identify patterns that may influence future licencing opportunities and anticipate potential hurdles.
5. Structure deal terms with balanced risk and value: Finally, when structuring deals, asset development stages are a key consideration. For instance, de-risked, later-stage assets often command higher value for sellers. It’s essential to ensure that both sides are aligned on the division of value, particularly for early-stage assets, where upfront payment offers can give you an edge in securing promising but riskier technologies.

Refining an in-licencing strategy requires a careful balance of quantitative analysis, deal benchmarking, and qualitative case studies. By evaluating comparable deals and dealmaking approaches, structuring terms thoughtfully, and ensuring alignment between buyers and sellers, you can optimise your approach to acquiring valuable assets.

For more in-depth dealmaking insights, watch our webinar, In-Licencing Lessons: Benchmarking Best Practice, available on demand here. Or to find out more about how Evaluate’s consultants can help you to find the right assets for your business, get in touch with our team.