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将2020年称为生命科学公司的“独特之年”是非常保守的说法，COVID-19大流行改变了行业，为机构和投资者通过创新推动医疗创造了巨大机遇，以下是其中的一些亮点：1. 2020年第三季度是生命科学风险投资规模最大的季度在生物制药、医疗技术、工具和诊断领域，超过1亿美元的风险投资继续增长。图1：按一般交易结构划分的医疗和生命科学交易的数量:生命科学分部门的活动随着投资者适应大流行病期间经济和商业状况的起伏而发生变化。通过下面的DealForma数据，可以更深入地了解这些子行业。
生物制药在投资资金和融资数量方面继续占据主导地位。投资者表示，创新水平比疫情前更快，创历史新高。随着公司和投资者反映出强烈的公开市场情绪，A轮和早期融资以及夹层融资活动增加. 在前几轮中，跨界车的贡献越来越大，它们在A轮中的参与度达到了历史最高水平。 肿瘤和平台公司继续炙手可热，而中枢神经系统药物的重要性也在增长。 令人惊讶的是，针对孤儿或罕见疾病的资金减少，这或许表明投资者在疫情期间将投资活动转移到了其他地方。
图3：平均风投资金额：治疗平台和生物制药(百万美元):
诊断领域继续从近期出现的科技投资者那里获得新的资金。2020年下半年，A轮融资略有持平，但后期和夹层融资仍在流动，尤其是COVID-19的创新方面。 投资者更愿意接受有潜力的市场，再次借助COVID-19以及数据、人工智能和机器学习趋势。 市场对COVID-19的疫苗方面进行了评估，但仍在评估对工具和诊断部门的影响。许多较大的合作伙伴可能正在寻求加强能力建设，新的方法继续吸引投资者的兴趣。
图4：平均风投资金额：诊断、测序、基因组学、蛋白质组学和研究工具(百万美元)
医药服务COVID-19让公众、市场和投资者重新思考制药供应链及其解决快速变化问题的能力。 制药供应链的早期中断，导致许多公司更加关注于建立更强弹性、以及评估多渠道交付方法。 细胞和基因疗法等创新和其他新技术的加速出现，推动企业寻找新的开发和制造方法。这些方法还可以缩小供应链范围，并需要新的解决方案来交付。 企业正在利用这些供应链和治疗趋势，这可能导致市场更加分散，但也更有弹性，更容易接受创新。 更多的整合也可能发生，同时仍在为创新者敞开大门。
去年，随着远程医疗访问和其他形式的虚拟医疗服务的激增，医疗信息技术领域迅速扩大，为2021年的持续增长和创新奠定了基础。如果2020年下半年生命科学投资有弱点的话，那就是医疗设备领域。由于患者推迟选择性手术以减少COVID-19的暴露，加上大流行对医疗系统的压力，医疗设备的需求和资金可能会下降。图5：平均风投资金额：医疗技术、设备、数字健康治疗和可穿戴设备(百万美元)
Life Sciences Outlook 2021: The Evolution Continues for Startup FundingTo call 2020 a “unique year” for life sciences companies would be an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the industry, creating immense opportunities for institutions and investors to drive healthcare through innovation.Here are a few of the highlights:1. 3Q 2020 was the largest quarter on record in terms of dollars for venture investment in life sciences2. Alternative sources of capital rose as well, including:Corporate venture capital (CVC) and corporate partnerships Up-front payments and deal terms on partnership deals Non-traditional investors, including individuals, angels, family offices, corporates and even hedge funds
Mega rounds—VC funding in excess of $100 million—continued to increase across biopharma, medical technology, and tools and diagnostics.Number of Healthcare and Life Sciences Deals by General Deal Structure1Activity within life sciences subsectors evolved as investors adjusted to the ebb and flow of the economic and business landscape during the pandemic. Take a deeper dive into these subsectors along with the DealForma data below.
Biopharma continues to dominate the industry landscape in terms of dollars invested and number of funding rounds. Investors are indicating record-high levels of innovation at a faster pace than before the pandemic.Increasing activity in Series A and early rounds, as well as mezzanine financing, as companies and investors map to strong public market sentiment. Crossovers are increasingly contributing to earlier rounds, expanding their Series A participation to all-time highs. Oncology and platform companies continue to be hot, while central nervous system drugs have grown in importance. One surprise has been the decline in funding for orphan or rare diseases, perhaps signaling that investors diverted activity elsewhere during the pandemic.
Average Venture Round by Series: Therapeutic Platforms and Biopharma ($M)3The diagnostic space continues to take in new capital from tech investors who have only recently emerged on the life sciences scene.Series A funding was a bit flat in the second half of 2020, but record levels of later-stage and mezzanine financing is still flowing in—especially for COVID-19 innovations. There’s more investor receptivity to growth stories, once again riding COVID-19 tailwinds as well as data, AI and machine learning trends. The market has valued the vaccine side of the COVID-19 wave but is still determining impacts on the tools and diagnostics segment. Many larger partners may be looking for increased capacity building, and novel approaches continue to attract investor interest.
Average Venture Round by Series: Diagnostics, Sequencing, Genomics, Proteomics and Research Tools ($M)4 COVID-19 has made the public, the market and investors rethink the pharma supply chain and its capacity to solve fast-moving problems.Early disruption in supply chains for pharma led many to focus on building in more resiliency and redundancy, as well as evaluating multi-channel approaches to delivery. The accelerating advent of innovations such as cell and gene therapies and other new modalities has pushed companies to find novel approaches to development and manufacturing. These approaches can also narrow supply chains and require new solutions for delivery. companies are taking advantage of these supply chain and therapy trends, which may lead to a market that is more fragmented but also more resilient and receptive to innovation. More consolidation may also occur, while still leaving the door open to newcomers.
The healthcare IT space expanded rapidly last year as telehealth visits and other forms of virtual healthcare skyrocketed, setting the stage for continued growth and innovation in 2021. Funding dollars hit an all-time high, boosted by the virtual care surge. Series A funding was flat to slightly down, but overall dollars were up, signaling a shift in focus to market-ready solutions and later-stage, mezzanine-focused COVID-19 ventures. Both fully virtual and hybrid platforms dominate the space, while provider and clinical trial solutions continue to perform well.
If there was one soft spot in life sciences investment in the latter half of 2020, it was in the medical devices space. Demand for medical devices—and funding—likely dipped, due to patients delaying elective procedures to reduce COVID-19 exposure, coupled with the pandemic’s strain on healthcare systems.Based on a two-year trend, Series A funding declined overall, although investments in certain areas, including cardiology and neurology, remained strong and continue to increase. Investors tended to focus on later-stage and commercialized investments. Despite these challenges, dealing with more innovative and novel medical device companies—those using AI or machine learning, for example—could see a rebound in 2021 given the overall dollars going into the space.
Average Venture Round by Series: Medtech, Devices, Digital Health Therapeutics and Wearables ($M)5
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