With only weeks to go in 2022, the three major pharmas each had inked between 16 and 20 deals. Meanwhile, Pfizer has been less busy with 12 deals, but those include M&A totaling $18.2bn.

Industry experts at BioFuture 2022 highlighted the growing importance of digital technology in drug discovery and development, and also the limitations remaining.

During Q3, biopharma merger and acquisition value reached $15.4bn and drew in $37.6bn in potential deal value from alliances. Device company M&A values reached $550m, while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players completed M&A activity that totaled $1.9bn.

Having led $30bn of acquisitions of companies at Sanofi, the new challenge for its former global head of partnering is to help make Owkin, “the most disruptive AI biotech company in the world,” he tells Scrip.