Other Deals Are Up 1860% in 2026 — Here's the Data

Ninety-eight deals in six months — up from five. That's a 1860% increase in 'other' modality deal activity between the period of January 22, 2026 to July 22, 2026 compared to the prior six months (July 22, 2025 to January 22, 2026). The category that pharma BD teams have historically dumped into a miscellaneous bucket — gene editing platforms, radiopharmaceuticals, microbiome therapeutics, complement pathway modulators, synthetic biology constructs, and anything that doesn't fit neatly into small molecule, biologic, or ADC taxonomies — has become the fastest-growing deal segment of 2026. The driver is simple: Big Pharma's traditional modality pipelines are mature, competitive, and increasingly commoditized, and the organizations with the deepest pockets are now paying premium prices to diversify into therapeutic architectures their competitors haven't yet locked up.

The Data — Other Deal Activity, Period over Period

This isn't a gradual uptick. It's a phase change. Five deals in the back half of 2025 reflected a market that still treated non-traditional modalities as experimental optionality plays — small upfronts, back-loaded milestones, largely academic partnerships. Ninety-eight deals in H1 2026 signals that the market has decisively repriced the entire category. For context, check the Deal Benchmarks dashboard — this growth rate outpaces ADC deal acceleration (which was itself a record-setter in 2025) by more than 4x.

What's Driving the Trend

Pipeline exhaustion in traditional modalities. The top 20 pharma companies by market cap are staring at patent cliffs totaling over $250B in revenue exposure through 2030. GLP-1s have dominated capital allocation for the past three years, but the competitive field is now crowded with over 40 clinical-stage programs. Oncology biosimilar pressure is mounting. PD-1/PD-L1 combinations have peaked. The strategic calculus has shifted: it's no longer sufficient to in-license the next me-too biologic. Boards and CSOs are demanding modality diversification, and the 'other' category is where that diversification lives.

Regulatory maturation of novel modalities. FDA has issued multiple new guidance documents in 2025–2026 covering radiopharmaceutical manufacturing, gene editing safety endpoints, and complement-targeted therapies. These weren't available even 18 months ago. Regulatory clarity de-risks the deal thesis. When a BD team can model an approvable regulatory pathway — rather than hand-waving about 'potential' — the internal hurdle rate drops, deal velocity increases, and upfronts rise. Other licensing 2026 structures increasingly reflect this confidence: upfronts are larger, milestone triggers are pulled forward, and opt-in windows are narrower.

Capital markets rewarding differentiation. Biotech IPO and crossover funding in H1 2026 has disproportionately flowed to companies with novel mechanism-of-action stories. Public market investors are discounting conventional pipelines and paying premium multiples for platform novelty. This creates a feedback loop: biotechs with 'other' modality assets can raise capital at favorable terms, which gives them leverage to negotiate better licensing deals with pharma, which validates the modality, which attracts more capital. The flywheel is spinning.

Notable Deals

The AstraZeneca-CSPC deal is the headline grabber, and it should be. An $18.5B total deal value with a $1.2B upfront is not a toe-in-the-water optionality play — it's a strategic commitment of the kind typically reserved for blockbuster oncology assets. AstraZeneca essentially signaled that it views this asset class as pipeline-critical, not portfolio decoration. Two CSPC deals to the same buyer within three days further underscores AZ's urgency to build scale in this space before competitors lock up the remaining assets.

The Omeros–Novo Nordisk deal ($2.4B TDV) is equally telling. Novo Nordisk has been overwhelmingly associated with metabolic disease and GLP-1 dominance, yet here they are writing a multi-billion-dollar check for a complement-pathway asset. This is Novo telling the market that the GLP-1 franchise, while enormous, isn't enough to sustain their growth targets through the end of the decade. Diversification is no longer optional.

BridgeBio's $105M upfront from Novartis stands out for different reasons. BridgeBio has positioned itself as a precision medicine platform, and a $105M upfront — while modest relative to the CSPC megadeal — represents strong validation for a company that was trading below $10 a share just two years ago. For biotech founders building in non-traditional modalities, this deal is a proof point: you don't need to be a $10B-market-cap company to command nine-figure upfronts if your science is differentiated and your clinical data is clean.

The Amgen-BeiGene collaboration, while financial terms remain undisclosed, signals continued cross-border deal appetite in this category. Use the Deal Calculator to model comparable structures — the implied economics of large-pharma-to-large-pharma licensing in non-traditional modalities often carry different risk-sharing profiles than classic biotech-to-pharma out-licensing.

What This Means for BD Teams Right Now

If you're selling: this is a generational seller's market for differentiated assets. The supply-demand imbalance is stark. Ninety-eight deals in six months means pharma BD teams are actively competing for a finite number of clinical-stage 'other' modality assets. If your asset has Phase 2 data in a novel mechanism, you should be running a competitive process with at least three potential partners. Upfronts in this category have shifted from 3–5% of TDV to 6–8% based on recent deal comps. Push for it.

If you're buying: move now or pay more later. The CSPC-AstraZeneca deal set a new valuation ceiling for this category. Every subsequent deal will reference it. BD teams that have been running internal diligence on 'other' modality targets for six months without making offers are going to find that their target's price expectations have recalibrated upward — possibly 30–50% higher than your last internal model. The cost of waiting is measurable and compounding.

Deal structures are evolving. We're seeing a shift toward larger upfronts, shorter opt-in periods, and co-development provisions that give the licensor more economics in exchange for sharing development risk. Milestone-heavy, back-loaded structures that dominated 2024 are losing favor with licensors who now have competitive leverage. Equity kickers and co-promote rights are showing up more frequently in term sheets. If your standard template still assumes 70/30 milestone-to-upfront ratios, update it — the market has moved.

Benchmark your deal against current market rates. The other deal trends 2026 data makes it clear: historical comps from even 12 months ago are stale. Use the Ambrosia calculator to stress-test your deal economics against the latest transaction data before you walk into your next negotiation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the 1860% increase in 'other' modality deals sustainable, or is this a one-time spike?

The base period was unusually low at five deals, which amplifies the percentage change. But 98 deals in six months is a structurally meaningful number — not a statistical artifact. Even if deal volume normalizes to 60–70 per half in H2 2026, that still represents a 10x+ increase from baseline. The underlying drivers — pipeline exhaustion, regulatory clarity, and capital market incentives — are durable, not transient. This isn't a spike; it's a new baseline.

How should biotech founders with 'other' modality assets think about timing an out-licensing deal?

Right now, timing favors sellers. The CSPC-AstraZeneca and Omeros-Novo Nordisk deals have set valuation anchors that will persist for at least 6–12 months. If you have Phase 2 data or a differentiated platform with clinical proof-of-concept, initiate a competitive process in Q3 2026. Waiting for Phase 3 readouts may not materially improve your deal economics if the market cools. Run your numbers through the Deal Calculator to quantify the delta.

Which specific sub-modalities within the 'other' category are attracting the most deal activity?

Based on H1 2026 transaction data, complement pathway modulators, radiopharmaceuticals, and gene editing platforms account for the plurality of deal volume. Complement-targeted therapies alone generated over $5B in disclosed TDV across multiple transactions. Radiopharmaceuticals continue to benefit from Novartis's 2024 manufacturing investments, which expanded the perceived market ceiling. Check the Deal Benchmarks for modality-specific breakdowns updated weekly.