Chiesi may be coming late to the development of eosinophilic asthma therapies, but there are certain advantages associated with acquisition target Atopix Therapeutics’ potential products that could strengthen the specialty pharma's already significant presence in the asthma market.

Born at a time when venture capital found few exit opportunities for early-stage companies, build-to-buy helped mitigate the risk in investing in uncharted science. But the model is flourishing even in this period of wider capital options.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Tech Transfer Deals column provides a monthly update on technology transfer deals, reporting licensing agreements between companies and universities or other research institutions within the In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals sectors. This month’s column covers deals announced March through April 2015.

At $4.2 billion, biopharma financing in Q4 2012 showed a 36% increase over Q3 with FOPOs again dominating as the most popular deal type. With 34 finalized biopharma M&As, Q4 was the most active quarter of all 2012 for acquisitions. The 108 biopharma alliances completed had a combined potential deal value of almost $2 billion; Johnson & Johnson, with seven tie-ups, was the busiest pharmaco during Q4.