Chatter about an impending acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics plc sent its shares soaring 61% throughout November, making it the best performing stock of the month among the 30 companies that are part of BioWorld’s Drug Developers Index (BDDI).

While biopharma deal values were down year-over-year in November by 7.6%, that gap has now doubled, showing a 15.5% decline in values in 2022. There has been a significant slowdown in activity in the second half of the year. Values were up by 7% in early August 2022. All told, 1,422 deals, including licensings, joint ventures and collaborations, have brought the industry a potential $169.2 billion through the first week of December.

Biopharma financings are tracking only 3% below 2019’s full-year total, but the volume of activity is at its lowest point since 2017. With a total of $56.1 billion raised, 2022 is currently the sixth best financing year on record, but it is significantly behind some of the years that rank higher.

The world is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, as both cases and deaths have remained consistently low in recent months, despite continuous mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Nevertheless, there is a shuffling of candidates in the arsenal as new variants bump once-effective therapies and the next generation of options enter the arena.