And the Nominees for IVB's 2013 Alliance of the Year Are ...

We've nominated five 2013 deals for Alliance of the Year. It's time for you, esteemed readers of The In Vivo Blog, to decide the winner. From medication adherence to geographic diversity to hot new technologies, there's something for everyone. Our polls will stay open through the New Year, until Noon ET on Tuesday, January 7. Good luck to the nominees! VOTE BELOW! IF YOU ARE VIEWING VIA EMAIL AND CAN'T SEE THE POLL, CLICK HERE.

GSK/Community Care of North Carolina: The deal may seem like a small marketing alliance between a big pharma company and a local provider of health care services in the medication adherence arena. But in reality it is much, much more. The alliance tackles critical challenges that are clearly on top of executives’ minds, in pharma and elsewhere in the health care system. Given the difficulties of closing deals between a pharma company and non-traditional commercial partners, notably like providers or payers, GSK certainly has pulled off a coup.Read the full nomination here.

Celgene/Oncomed: The deal once again put Celgene at the forefront of early-stage oncology dealmaking and added to the already impressive smorgasbord of drug candidates and technologies to which it holds rights or options. This is not to say the complicated deal with OncoMed was business as usual, for it was one of the most complicated agreements of the year in biopharmaceuticals, necessitating a term sheet that might have resembled a Rube Goldberg machine, and quite lucrative for OncoMed -- potentially very lucrative. Read the full nomination here.

Amgen/Astellas: In announcing a strategic alliance with Astellas Pharma in May, Amgen has placed an economic bet on Japan. It is also, indirectly, a bet on economic recovery in the U.S. and Europe, Japan’s two biggest export markets. The partners will co-develop and co-commercialize five Amgen drugs for the Japanese market, as well as establish a joint venture that is 51% owned by Amgen, opened in Tokyo in October. Operating as Amgen Astellas BioPharma KK, the JV is structured to allow Amgen to turn the operation into a wholly-owned Japanese affiliate as early as 2020, and a direct channel into Japan for any molecule in its portfolio including its six biosimilars in development.Read the full nomination here.

Roche/Polyphor: Roche has given notice that it’s back in the antimicrobials space. For the first time in 30 years. Roche and Polyphor believe the timing of their alliance is good. Others have cut back, including onetime leader Pfizer, which closed its antibiotic R&D center in Connecticut in 2011, as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Eli Lilly & Co., leaving only a few players, such as AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck & Co. Read the full nomination here.

AstraZeneca/Moderna: Shortly after unveiling a revised R&D strategy and organizational restructuring, AstraZeneca made a massive bet on an early-stage platform that suggested the big pharma has taken to heart new CEO Pascal Soriot’s directive to be more willing to embrace risk. The deal boasts $240 million upfront from AstraZeneca to privately held Moderna Therapeutics and is unusually broad-based, carrying options for up to 40 programs in different therapeutic areas using the biotech's messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Read the full nomination here.