As the fuzzy chart tries to make clear, the biotech gold rush is increasingly costing big pharma more money all the time. So far, this year there were 70 deals ringing up $700 million. The number of deals isn’t actually increasing year-over-year, but the average (red line) and total cash (blue bar) upfront payouts are rising faster than Spiderman can climb a skyscraper.

The number and price of pre-clinical and Phase I deals have soared mainly in response to the price of later stage deals, Roche’s Nigel Sheail told The In Vivo Blog at a biotech forum in Europe this week. But upfront payments for later stage assets suggest there is still plenty of competition further down the value chain: the average upfront payment in licensing deals in 2005-07 for Phase II products was $41 million. From 2000-02, that same figure for Phase III projects was only $28 million.

The message to big pharma: dive in while you can still afford it.