Mersana signs its third ADC partnership with big pharmas for the year with Merck agreement. Lilly expands its RNA editing partnership with ProQR, which now has the potential to earn an additional $2.5bn. Novartis continues its divestment efforts in deals with Harrow, Erasca.

Already partnered on antibody-drug conjugates and a Phase III breast cancer candidate, Merck could pay up to $9.3bn under its third pact in 2022 with Kelun. Eisai divests Fycompa to Catalyst.

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.

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.