What are Biobucks?
Biobucks are commitments for the provision of future money contingent on certain outcomes that companies may include as part of business development or licensing deals. These future provisions may depend on hitting certain sales, clinical, or regulatory milestones (such as a dollar amount of sales per quarter, positive readouts in a certain phase of development, or FDA approval).

Biobucks often headline deals due to the appeal associated with high dollar values, but critics suggest that the upfront payouts are often more important given the general risk associated with achieving milestones.

Biobucks have occasionally been the subject of lawsuits when shareholders of an acquired company or company that out-licensed a product feel that the acquirer mishandled execution of development or commercialization which cost them potential biobucks in previously agreed-to deals.