Similar to 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated both biopharma deals with nonprofit entities and grants in 2021. Combined, pandemic deals and grants account for 87% of the total value, but only 22% of the volume, for the year. Through the week of Christmas, BioWorld has recorded 388 grants for the industry, valued at $2.94 billion, and 845 bio/nonprofit deals worth $21.44 billion. Of those, 82 grants worth $1.4 billion and 194 deals worth $19.8 billion involved therapeutic and vaccine development or supply agreements for COVID-19.

On target with last year, a total of 87% of funds recorded in 2021 through biopharma collaborations with nonprofit entities by the end of October are focused on COVID-19 pandemic efforts. The pandemic accounts for 54% of the money collected through grants, which is still a sturdy amount but down from 76% in 2020.

Biopharma company deals with nonprofit entities, as well as grants, are not keeping the same pace as last year, but the proportion of money flowing into COVID-19 efforts continues to account for the majority of those recorded overall.

Although more than a third of U.S. citizens are fully vaccinated from COVID-19 and society moves closer to normalcy in many parts of the world, the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to dramatically impact biopharma dealmaking with nonprofit entities, as well as grant awards.

Busting a logjam of inadequate data sharing methods and communications between pharmas and health authorities around the world is the impetus behind the creation of nonprofit Accumulus Synergy Inc., whose common, cloud-based platform is designed to make the regulatory process easier for everyone involved. The coalition’s initial membership is a Who’s Who of big pharma: Amgen Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc., Bristol Myers Squibb Co., Glaxosmithkline plc, the Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. of Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer Inc., Roche Holding AG, Sanofi SA and Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

The amount of money flowing into the biopharma industry via grants and collaborations with nonprofit and government entities is a 272% increase over last year, with efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic accounting for 84% of the total for 2020.

The combined total of biopharma nonprofit collaborations and grants in 2020 has reached about $24 billion, more than three times the amount recorded for 2019.

Without the COVID-19 pandemic, projected values of biopharma nonprofit collaborations and grants would be 72% and 30% below last year’s levels, although it is impossible to know what deals may have come to fruition in a world absent of the disruptive SARS-CoV-2 virus.