Other Deal Trends 2026: Activity Surges 4900% in 6 Months

Fifty deals in six months versus one in the prior half — that is a 4900% increase in "other" category deal activity between the period of 2025-07-10 to 2026-01-10 and 2026-01-10 to 2026-07-10. This is not a rounding error. The explosion in deals that defy clean therapeutic-area classification signals a structural shift: Big Pharma is buying capabilities, not just molecules, and the traditional TA taxonomy is failing to capture what's actually trading hands.

The Data — Other Deal Activity, Period over Period

The baseline of 1 deal is admittedly low, which makes the percentage change look extreme. But the absolute number — 50 transactions in a single half — demands attention. For context, this outpaces several established therapeutic categories over the same window. The "other" bucket is no longer a footnote. It is becoming the deal category that swallows the rest.

What's Driving the Trend

Platform over pipeline. The most obvious driver is Big Pharma's escalating appetite for enabling technology platforms rather than discrete clinical-stage assets. Bio-Techne's blockbuster arrangement with Merck KGaA, valued at $11.3B, is the clearest example. Bio-Techne is not a drug company in the traditional sense — it is a proteomics, diagnostics, and bioprocessing infrastructure play. When Merck KGaA writes an $11.3B check for that kind of asset, the deal doesn't fit neatly into oncology, immunology, or CNS. It sits in "other" because the industry's classification system hasn't caught up with the buying thesis. The same logic applies to Generate: Biomedicines' deal with Novartis — a generative AI-driven protein design platform that spans multiple modalities and disease areas simultaneously.

Modality convergence is breaking TA silos. RNA interference, targeted protein degradation, AI-native drug design — these technologies cut horizontally across therapeutic areas. Silence Therapeutics' RNAi deal with Hansoh Pharmaceutical and Nurix Therapeutics' protein degradation agreement with Gilead both fall into this pattern. They are platform-access deals where the licensee is securing rights to a toolkit, not a single indication. BD teams that still organize pipeline gap analyses by TA alone are missing the most active part of the market.

Capital is flowing toward optionality. In a rate environment where the cost of capital has stabilized but not dropped, pharma acquirers are pricing optionality more aggressively. A platform deal that touches five TAs offers a different risk-reward profile than a Phase 2 oncology asset with binary readout risk. The surge in "other" deals reflects a portfolio construction shift toward diversified bets embedded in single transactions. Check the latest Deal Benchmarks to see how total deal values in this category compare to traditional TA-specific licensing.

Notable Deals

Bio-Techne / Merck KGaA is the headline deal and arguably the most consequential other licensing 2026 transaction. Two entries in the table (June 25 and June 28) suggest a multi-tranche or expanded structure, with the $11.3B figure representing total enterprise commitment. This is an acquisition-scale valuation for a company that pharma BD teams would not have screened five years ago. It signals that Merck KGaA is treating bioprocessing and research tools infrastructure as a strategic moat, not a vendor relationship.

Generate: Biomedicines / Novartis is notable for its opacity — no upfront or TDV disclosed. Novartis has been building conviction in AI-native drug design since its early work with Recursion and Microsoft. Partnering with Generate: Biomedicines extends that thesis to generative protein engineering. The undisclosed terms suggest either an equity-linked structure or a multi-program option framework that doesn't lend itself to traditional deal value reporting.

Nurix / Gilead ($1.8B TDV) continues Gilead's systematic build-out of its targeted protein degradation portfolio. Gilead signed its first Nurix collaboration in 2019 and has expanded multiple times. The $1.8B TDV here represents accumulated confidence in the molecular glue and degrader platform, not a de novo bet. For BD teams watching this space: Gilead has locked up significant degrader real estate, and the remaining independent platforms are thinning.

Silence Therapeutics / Hansoh ($16M upfront) stands in stark contrast. The modest upfront reflects either early-stage assets, geographic licensing constraints (Hansoh is Greater China-focused), or a deliberate structure where value is back-loaded into milestones and royalties. This is the other end of the other licensing 2026 spectrum — not every deal in this surge is a mega-transaction.

What This Means for BD Teams Right Now

If you're selling a platform technology: This is unambiguously a seller's market for differentiated enabling platforms. Fifty deals in six months means multiple buyers are competing for the same capability sets. If your technology spans TAs — whether it's a delivery platform, an AI engine, a degrader chassis, or a bioprocessing innovation — you have more leverage now than at any point in the last three years. Price accordingly. Structure deals with option expansions and escalating economics rather than accepting flat milestone schedules.

If you're buying: Move fast on the platforms that matter to your pipeline strategy. The window on unpartnered, high-quality enabling technology assets is closing. Bio-Techne is off the board. Generate: Biomedicines is now Novartis-aligned. Nurix is deeply embedded with Gilead. Every week you spend in diligence is a week a competitor spends signing a term sheet. Use the Deal Calculator to stress-test your valuation assumptions against the current market, because the comps are moving in real time.

Deal structures gaining favor: Multi-program option frameworks with exercise fees per target. Equity components (especially for pre-revenue platform companies where milestone triggers are ambiguous). Tiered royalty structures that reward the licensor as the platform validates across indications. The structures losing favor: single-asset, single-indication licenses with traditional Phase 1/2/3/approval milestone waterfalls. Those still work for defined clinical programs, but they don't capture the value of what's actually being transacted in the "other" category.

Benchmark your deal against current market rates using the Ambrosia calculator. The other deal trends 2026 data set is now large enough to generate meaningful comparables — something that was impossible six months ago when the category contained a single transaction.