Across 14 companies, on average about 3/5 (60%) were either licensed or brought in via an acquisition, with smaller biotechs being the most common source

Some other observations:

• This seems to jive with prior analyses - Atlas Ventures previously showed that the majority of pharma's key assets originated in smaller biotechs, particularly for the biggest drugs

Another example showing collaboration is the engine driving so much progress in the industry

• No one approach dominates across the board - Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk stand out as more organically built and have seen their stock prices explode thanks to their obesity assets, but Novartis also leans organic, yet has struggled over the same period
• Conversely, AbbVie, BMS, J&J, Merck and Pfizer relied more on in-licensing and M&A - within this group are some of the highest ROI deals ever:
• While there was a wide range, about ~60% of FY22 sales for these companies were concentrated in these core assets

Even at the largest scale, success in biopharma is a story of outliers: outlier assets, outlier companies and outlier deals that bring them together