This is the second installment in a new series where BioPharma Dive uses data visualization to recap what’s going on across the industry. Today, we’re looking at trends in licensing deals with Chinese biotechs, Lilly’s dealmaking spree and the rise and fall of stock prices for Alumis and Ultragenyx.

Licensing deals between Chinese biotechnology companies and U.S. or Europe-based drug developers are showing no signs of slowing down, even as questions abound about maintaining the West’s competitive edge in drugmaking.

More than 100 such deals have been inked since the beginning of 2025. The number announced per quarter hit its peak in the first three months of 2026, buoyed by agreements from large firms like AstraZeneca, AbbVie and Roche, which all furnished upfront payments worth at least $550 million in pursuit of new cancer and obesity drugs.

GSK and Roche kept the trend going this week, with their respective licensing agreements with Hutchmed and Simcere Pharmaceutical.

Meanwhile, investors pulled back from Alumis and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical after both companies reported trial failures for closely watched medicines.

Alumis, which has been testing a TYK2 inhibitor called envudeucitinib in systemic lupus erythematosus, said Tuesday its drug missed the primary and secondary goals of a mid-stage study. The news sent Alumis’ share price — which had zipped up at the beginning of 2026 on promising data from Phase 3 studies of envudeucitinib in patients with psoriasis — tumbling down, to trade around $10 apiece.

Stifel analyst Alex Thompson wrote in a note to clients that Alumis’ stumble suggests this class of drugs, which has won approvals treating psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, “are likely to be viewed as a show-me story” in tough-to-treat autoimmune conditions.

Gene therapy maker Ultragenyx also saw its share price cut in half after publishing data on Wednesday showing its treatment failed to meaningfully help patients with a rare disease called Angelman syndrome. With no approved therapy for Angelman, Ultragenyx became the latest in a line of companies that have tried and failed to win approval for their drug. Wednesday's announcement “leaves very little room for an optimistic interpretation,” Leerink Partners analyst Joseph Schwartz wrote in a client note.

Shares in Ultragenyx already dipped in February when it announced cost cuts. Now, the company is planning new restructuring efforts on the back of its trial failure.

Biopharma M&A is still continuing at a steady clip, led by Eli Lilly, which has announced a dozen such acquisitions since the start of 2026. The Indianapolis pharma has made four times the number of deals as its closest competitors, Gilead Sciences, GSK and Novartis, several of which have been for privately owned startups that have yet to produce clinical data. About half of private M&A deals in the first half of 2026 were for companies that were preclinical or Phase 1, according to a mid-year report from Jonathan Norris, a managing director at HSBC Innovation Banking.

That’s also come with a spike in upfront payments. Lilly, flush with cash from sales of its GLP-1 drugs, has paid at least $31.5 billion to buy those companies — double the next busiest acquirer, Gilead.

“A partially open IPO window and strong M&A, both in deal count and deal value, provided companies security in clearer paths to exit,” Norris wrote.

Lilly has, however, offered less in upfront payments or stayed mum about the financial considerations for many of its deals. This week’s acquisition of Merida Bio is worth as much as $2.9 billion, including unspecified milestone payments, though Lilly did not disclose the initial payment amount for the immune drugmaker.