Biotech and life sciences data rooms for faster partnering and traceable IP
Put the out-licensing package behind your NDA, see which partner read the clinical data, and keep every protocol and patent file current, in one secure room per partnering deal, financing round or sale.
No credit card · 7-day Data Room trial that never auto-charges · partners and investors view free, no account · 24/7 support
Last updated October 2026
TL;DR — Peony for Biotech
- • Data Room $52/admin/mo: unlimited rooms, documents and storage with no file-size cap, so the full CMC, clinical and regulatory package fits in one room
- • Unlike Ideals/Firmex/Datasite: no per-page, per-viewer, or per-link fees
- • Free plan ($0) with IP security; Business $30/admin/mo adds screenshot blocking, Simple NDA gates and AI Q&A; Data Room $52/admin/mo adds dynamic watermarks
- • 5-minute setup vs weeks of VDR onboarding — GDPR, HIPAA-aligned, SOC 2 Type II-ready and ISO 27001-ready
Trusted by 800+ life sciences companies, including Regeneron and Bausch + Lomb
8,000+ customers in 60+ countries · $44.7B in client assets
Peony staff can't open your documents, your documents aren't used to train AI, and Peony has had no data breach since launch.
What does Peony's life sciences data room do, and who uses it?
Peony is a life sciences data room that biotech, pharma, medtech and CRO teams use to share IP, CMC, clinical and regulatory documents with partners, investors, acquirers and outside reviewers, with every page view recorded.
Data Room, Peony's most popular plan, is $52 per admin per month billed yearly, with unlimited rooms, documents and storage and no file-size cap, so a full CMC, clinical and regulatory package fits in one room; partners, investors and reviewers view free. A life sciences data room is a permissioned online workspace for exactly that exchange; the full document checklist is in our biotech data room guide.
- Out-licensing and partnering: one room or group per partner, each behind its own NDA, with page-level analytics on the clinical study report and the freedom-to-operate opinion.
- Financing rounds and M&A: a link per fund or bidder, diligence questions answered in the room's Q&A, and one switch to cut off a party that drops out.
- Clinical, regulatory and board: view-only or download access per folder for CROs, outside reviewers and SAB members, with every document page watermarked to the viewer.
Peony at a glance
- Built for
- Biotech, pharma, medtech, diagnostics and CRO teams running out-licensing and partnering, financing rounds, M&A diligence, clinical and regulatory collaboration, and board and SAB reporting.
- Typical plan
- Data Room, $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly): unlimited rooms, documents and storage, a signed NDA with audit record, dynamic watermarks, folder- and file-level permissions per partner, in-room Visitor Q&A, AI room generation and Index documents.
- Pricing
- Business $30, Data Room $52 and Deal Team $64 (minimum 4 admins) per admin per month billed yearly ($44, $75 and $89 monthly); Enterprise is custom. Free ($0) covers 50 documents and 500 MB as tracked single-file links; data rooms start on Business.
- Partners and investors
- Partners and investors are unlimited and free on every plan and don't need a Peony account. You pay per admin, not per viewer.
- Rooms and storage
- Unlimited data rooms, documents and storage on Data Room and above, and no per-file size cap on any plan. Business includes 3 data rooms per admin, 1,000 documents per admin and 100 GB of storage, with no per-file size cap.
- File management
- Upload new version keeps a file's place and link and keeps every earlier version; AI room generation drafts the folder structure, and Index documents numbers every file (Data Room plan).
- Live models
- Peony renders .html files live with JavaScript running, so a Claude or ChatGPT artifact (a model, dashboard or calculator) stays interactive for the viewer, behind your NDA gate, permissions and analytics.
- Partner IT review
- On Data Room, Screenshield extends screenshot protection to iPhone, iPad and Android by shrinking the capturable area, for partner teams reviewing on phones. Deal Team adds OAuth SSO, API access and a standard DPA with security documentation. Enterprise (custom) adds SAML SSO, BYOK and custom data residency, including EU-region hosting. See the security overview.
- Works alongside
- Peony is the controlled sharing layer for the documents that leave your eTMF, QMS or submission system, so those systems stay your record.
- Security
- AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.2+ in transit. Peony staff can't open your documents, your documents aren't used to train AI, and Peony has had no data breach since launch. Peony's incident-response policy commits to telling affected customers within 72 hours of confirming an incident that affects customer data. SOC 2 Type II-ready and ISO 27001-ready, with both audits underway. Compliance and certifications
- Setup
- Median 4 min 19 s from sign-up to first uploaded document (State of M&A Data Rooms, Q3 2026 edition).
- Trial
- 7-day Data Room trial you start yourself: no credit card, and it never auto-charges. Rooms, files, links, analytics and NDA settings carry over when you upgrade. AI features switch on after you upgrade.
- Support
- 24/7 support, handled directly by the Peony team across Europe, US and Asia hours, with no outsourced tier. Everyone you speak to on Peony support has M&A experience at elite boutiques or bulge-bracket banks, VC experience, or has raised $1M+ themselves.
- Customers
- 8,000+ customers in 60+ countries, with $44.7B in client assets.
Which life sciences and healthcare teams use a data room?
Every stage of the life sciences lifecycle sends confidential files outside the company: partnering and licensing, financing, M&A, clinical and regulatory work, and board and SAB reporting. For a ranked comparison of providers, see best data rooms for healthcare and life sciences.
Biotech
Out-licensing and partnering packages, Series A to C financing rooms, patent estate and IP diligence, sell-side biotech M&A, and CMO and CRO collaboration. Full checklist: biotech data room guide.
Pharma
In-licensing diligence, asset divestitures and portfolio M&A, and co-development partnerships (pharma partnering playbook). Distributors and exporters sharing catalogues and dossiers: pharma data rooms.
Medical devices
Technical documentation and design history files shared with acquirers, notified-body consultants and distributors, with view-only access per party.
CROs and sponsors
Protocols, investigator's brochures and site-level access across multi-site studies (clinical trial data rooms).
Diagnostics, imaging and genomics
Validation data, imaging studies and assay reports shared with partners and acquirers (sharing imaging studies).
What does a biotech data room need?
A biotech data room needs screenshot blocking and dynamic watermarks for IP, NDA-gated access and granular permissions for partners, complete audit trails for FDA/EMA compliance, and AI Q&A to surface answers across hundreds of clinical and regulatory PDFs.Peony gives you enterprise-grade security, AI-powered document intelligence, complete audit trails and, on the Data Room plan, unlimited storage — all at a fraction of legacy VDR pricing.
Put the out-licensing package behind your NDA
Peony gates the out-licensing package behind an NDA each partner accepts before page one, blocks desktop screenshots of patent filings, and stamps every page with the viewer's email, IP address and timestamp (Data Room plan). Your patents and formulations deserve more than a password.
Screenshot protection
Block screen captures of patent filings, compound structures, and proprietary research. Prevent unauthorized duplication of your most valuable assets.
Dynamic watermarks
Every page stamped with the viewer's identity and timestamp. If a document leaks, you know exactly who shared it and when.
NDA-gated access
Require licensing partners and investors to sign an NDA before viewing clinical data or IP filings. Fully integrated e-signatures included.
See which partner read the clinical data
Peony records, page by page, which partner opened the clinical study report or the freedom-to-operate opinion, how long each reviewer spent on each page, and when they came back for another session. Track every view, download, and signature with timestamped logs. Page-by-page analytics show exactly which sections of your clinical protocols and regulatory submissions reviewers focused on. On the Data Room plan, each reviewer's audit trail also lists every question they asked the AI about your documents, often a sharper signal of intent than time on page.
Page-by-page tracking
See which pages of your clinical study report or patent portfolio investors spent the most time on. Understand what matters to them.
Compliance-ready logs
Exportable audit trails with timestamps, IP addresses, and device details. Meet regulatory requirements for document access tracking.
Granular access control
Give CROs read-only access to trial protocols, investors full access to financials, and regulators access to specific submission folders — all from one data room.
Keep every protocol and patent file current
Peony replaces a revised protocol, investigator's brochure or patent filing in place with Upload new version, so the file keeps its position and its link and every earlier version stays one click away. On the Data Room plan, rooms, documents and storage are unlimited with no file-size cap, so the full CMC, clinical and regulatory package fits in one place, and AI document Q&A (Business and above) answers reviewers' questions from your own files with page citations.
Version control without broken links
Upload new version replaces a file in place: it keeps its position in the room and its link, and every earlier version stays one click away in the version menu. Protocol amendments and IB updates reach every partner at the link they already have.
Room structure in minutes
AI room generation proposes a folder structure from a one-line description of the deal before you upload (Data Room plan). Index documents numbers every folder and file (1, 1.1, 1.2...) so both sides can say "open 2.3" (Data Room plan).
Live models and dashboards
Peony renders .html files live with JavaScript running, so a Claude or ChatGPT artifact (a model, dashboard or calculator) stays interactive for the viewer, behind your NDA gate, permissions and analytics.
Chat with research files
Ask questions across clinical study reports, patent filings, and regulatory documents. AI retrieves answers with exact source references.
Natural language search
Search your data room in plain English. Find specific compound data, trial endpoints, or regulatory references without remembering file names.
Investor Q&A on autopilot
Let AI answer investor questions about your pipeline, clinical data, and IP portfolio 24/7. Track what they ask to refine your pitch: each investor's audit trail lists every question they asked the AI (Data Room plan).
How life sciences teams run their rooms in Peony
Five common situations across the lifecycle, each with the Peony setup that handles it and the plan it needs.
Business development: one Phase II asset, three interested partners.
Your BD lead is out-licensing a Phase II asset to three pharma partners. Each partner gets its own room: Duplicate copies the finished room's files and folders into a fresh room for the next partner, with clean analytics and no shared links, and each room gets its own NDA and permissions. Page-level analytics show that one partner's team went straight to the Phase II clinical study report and the freedom-to-operate opinion, then came back for a second session, while the other two stopped after the non-confidential deck. You go into the next call knowing who is serious.
Data Room plan: unlimited rooms
Finance: the Series B room.
Each fund is its own group with its own link. You see which partner at which fund read the clinical data package, page by page, and when a fund passes you switch its group off and its link stops opening. Turn on AI document Q&A for a group and its investors can ask questions answered from your own documents, with page citations.
Business and above
Clinical and regulatory: the CRO and outside reviewers.
The CRO gets view-only access to protocols, the external statistician can download one folder, and the board-only safety summary stays invisible to both. Every page carries the viewer's email and timestamp, so a forwarded PDF traces back to its source. When the protocol is amended, Upload new version swaps the file in place: the CRO's link opens the amendment, and v1 stays in the version menu.
Data Room plan
Legal and corporate development: M&A diligence without a setup project.
Describe the deal in one line and Peony drafts the folder tree. Index documents numbers every file, so your team and the buyer can say "open 4.2" instead of hunting for a file name, and buyer questions land in the room's Q&A instead of your inbox, each bidder in its own question team, so no bidder sees another's questions.
Data Room plan
CEO: the board and the scientific advisory board.
Board decks and SAB pre-reads go out with one group and link per director. When a term ends, switch that director's group off and the link stops opening. An interactive model built in Claude or ChatGPT, such as an rNPV or enrollment forecast, sits in the same room as a live .html file with its JavaScript running.
Business and above
Is Peony suitable for sharing clinical trial data, regulatory submissions and IP documents with partners and regulators?
Yes. Peony gives each partner, CRO or regulatory reviewer its own access group behind your NDA, logs every page they open with time spent, and stamps each page with the viewer's email, IP address and timestamp. Dynamic watermarks and folder- and file-level permissions per group are on the Data Room plan ($52 per admin per month billed yearly), and the watermark stays on any PDF a reviewer is allowed to download. Peony staff can't open the documents in your room, and your documents aren't used to train AI. Peony is the controlled sharing layer for the documents that leave your eTMF, QMS or submission system, so those systems stay your record.
Comparing providers for the same job? See Peony vs ShareVault.
How does a licensing deal run in Peony, from non-confidential deck to term sheet?
An out-licensing process moves from a tracked non-confidential deck to a confidential, NDA-gated room per partner and ends with one partner at term sheet; in Peony each stage maps to a control.
- Non-confidential outreach. Send the non-confidential deck as a tracked link; page-level analytics show which partners read past the summary and came back (every plan).
- CDA and the confidential room. Partners who engage get their own group and link into the room and accept your CDA or NDA before the first page loads (acknowledge-only NDA on Business; signed NDA with audit record on Data Room).
- Diligence. Open the clinical, CMC, regulatory and patent folders per partner with folder-level permissions, watermark every page with the viewer's email, and take questions in the room's Q&A, each partner in its own question team, so no partner sees another's questions (Data Room).
- Term sheet to signing. Switch off the groups of partners who drop out, so their links stop opening; post updated data with Upload new version so every link opens the current file; export the session and analytics log as CSV for the deal file (Business and above).
From a biotech founder
"Peony has been great for sharing documents with investors, employees, and customers. It's easy to use, good value, and new features are constantly being added. Definitely recommend!"
Ed Harris
Founder & CEO, Ligo Bio (YC S24)
No credit card · 7-day Data Room trial that never auto-charges · partners and investors view free, no account · 24/7 support
How does Peony compare with per-project VDRs for biotech?
| Capability | Peony | Datasite | Ideals | Firmex |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free / $30 admin/mo | Per-page fees | $1,000s/mo | $1,000s/mo |
| Setup time | Under 5 minutes | Weeks, sales call | Weeks, sales call | Weeks, sales call |
| Screenshot block | Yes | Limited | Limited | Limited |
| AI Q&A | Yes | No | No | No |
| Page analytics | Page-by-page | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| NDA gating | Built-in e-sign | Add-on | Add-on | Add-on |
| HIPAA-aligned | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What does a biotech data room cost on Peony?
On Peony, biotech and life sciences rooms run on the Data Room plan at $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly), with unlimited rooms, documents and storage, and partners, investors and reviewers join free.
You pay per admin, not per viewer and not per data room, so a two-admin BD team pays $104 a month billed yearly whether it runs one partnering process or five. Per-project VDRs quote each deal separately, so parallel licensing, financing and M&A rooms multiply the bill.
Business
100 GB storage, no per-file size limit
$30 /admin/mo billed yearly
$44 billed monthly
3 data rooms per admin, an NDA gate, viewer email verification, download prevention, desktop screenshot protection, drop-off reports and AI document Q&A.
Data Room
Peony's most popular plan
$52 /admin/mo billed yearly
$75 billed monthly
Unlimited rooms, documents and storage, a signed NDA with audit record, dynamic watermarks, granular folder and file permissions, Visitor Q&A, a custom domain, AI room generation and Index documents.
Deal Team
Minimum 4 admins
$64 /admin/mo billed yearly
$89 billed monthly
Everything in Data Room plus advanced redaction, Advanced Q&A routing, custom invite emails, new-file notifications, API access, OAuth SSO, room archive download, a standard DPA and priority support (minimum 4 admins).
Prices are per admin per month billed yearly; monthly billing costs more. Free ($0) covers 50 documents and 500 MB as tracked single-file links; data rooms start on Business. Compare every feature on the pricing page.
Why is biotech document sharing broken?
Biotech document sharing is broken because IP filings, clinical data, and regulatory submissions get scattered across email and consumer cloud drives that lack screenshot protection, NDA gates, and audit trails.Between IP filings, clinical data, and regulatory submissions, biotech teams juggle sensitive documents across too many insecure tools. One leak can cost millions.
IP theft risk
Patents, formulations, and research data shared via email or generic cloud drives are easy targets for unauthorized copying and screenshots.
Regulatory compliance
FDA and EMA submissions demand complete audit trails. Most file-sharing tools cannot prove who accessed what and when.
Clinical data sprawl
Trial protocols, patient data summaries, and CRO reports scattered across Dropbox, Google Drive, and email threads make due diligence painful.
Multi-party complexity
Licensing partners, investors, CROs, and regulatory bodies each need different access levels. Managing permissions manually is error-prone.
Frequently asked questions
What is Peony, and is it a good fit for biotech and life sciences companies (licensing, fundraising, M&A, clinical and regulatory)?
Yes. Peony is a virtual data room that biotech, pharma, medtech and CRO teams use to share licensing, fundraising, M&A and regulatory packages under NDA, set access per partner and track each partner's page views. Peony is trusted by 800+ life sciences companies. Data Room, the most popular plan, is $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly), with unlimited rooms and storage; inviting partners is free and unlimited.
What is the best data room for biotech and pharma companies?
Peony is the modern data room built for biotech and pharmaceutical teams, with NDA-gated rooms, page-level analytics and AI document Q&A from $30 per admin per month, and partners and investors join free. Unlike legacy VDRs like Ideals and Firmex that overcharge for basic IP security, Peony offers a free plan ($0) with core security features, and the Business plan ($30/admin/month) adds screenshot protection, Simple NDA-gated access, and AI document Q&A, while the Data Room plan ($52/admin/month) adds dynamic watermarks and unlimited rooms, documents and storage for full clinical and regulatory packages. For a full ranked comparison — ShareVault, iDeals, Datasite, Intralinks, and the flat-rate options — see our best data rooms for healthcare and life sciences guide.
How do biotech companies protect intellectual property in a data room?
Peony protects IP with screenshot blocking, dynamic watermarks stamped with the viewer's identity and timestamp, NDA-gated access that requires signatures before viewing, and granular permissions per document. All data is secured with AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit on infrastructure that is SOC 2 Type II-ready and ISO 27001-ready, with both audits underway. Peony is GDPR, CCPA, and HIPAA compliant. If a patent filing or compound structure leaks, you know exactly who shared it.
Can a data room help with biotech licensing and partnering deals?
Yes. Peony lets you create isolated rooms per licensing partner with independent NDA requirements, permissions, and audit trails. Peony's Advanced Redaction (available on the Deal Team plan) lets you permanently black out sensitive financial terms or proprietary compound data before sharing with counterparties. Share clinical data and IP filings securely with page-level analytics to track which sections partners focus on — so you know their level of interest before the next meeting.
Can we run several partnering processes at once without partners seeing each other?
Yes. On Peony, each partner gets its own room or group, sees only the folders you grant, signs its own NDA and asks questions in a question team no other partner can see (Data Room plan). Duplicate copies a finished room's files and folders into a fresh room for the next partner, with clean analytics and no shared links. Data Room includes unlimited rooms, so three parallel processes cost the same as one, and an answer to a process-wide question can go to every partner at once without revealing who asked.
How do we onboard a CRO and outside reviewers without opening the whole room?
Put each one in its own group on Peony and set every folder to No access, View or Download for that group, so the CRO sees protocols while the board-only safety summary stays hidden. No access removes a folder or file from that group's view entirely, so even a file name can't leak. Reviewers don't need a Peony account or a paid seat. Turn on Hide new content by default and new uploads stay invisible until you grant them group by group. Folder- and file-level permissions are on the Data Room plan ($52 per admin per month billed yearly).
What documents should a biotech data room include for fundraising?
A biotech fundraising data room should include patent portfolios, clinical trial data, regulatory submissions, financial projections, and management team bios. On Peony's Data Room plan, AI room generation drafts the folder structure from a one-line description of the round, and Index documents numbers every file (1.1, 1.2...) so an investor can say "open 2.3" instead of hunting for a file name. AI-powered Q&A lets investors ask questions across your entire document library 24/7.
How much does a biotech data room cost for a Series B company preparing for licensing discussions?
On Peony, a Series B licensing room runs on the Data Room plan at $52 per admin per month billed yearly ($75 monthly), with unlimited rooms and storage, and partners join free. Series B biotech companies preparing licensing data rooms — with CMC data, clinical protocols, and patent filings for pharma partners — face thousands per month from legacy VDRs like Ideals and Firmex. Peony offers a free plan ($0), scales to $30/admin/month (Business, 3 data rooms per admin) and $52/admin/month (Data Room, unlimited data rooms and unlimited storage) with screenshot protection, AI document Q&A, and complete audit trails. Peony has no per-viewer, per-page, or per-link limits, so costs stay predictable as you add CROs, Phase II/III partners, and licensing counterparties: a two-admin BD team on Data Room pays $104 a month billed yearly however many partners it invites.
Does Peony support regulatory compliance for clinical data?
Yes, as the access record for the documents you share: Peony logs every view, download and signature with a timestamp, IP address and device details in a complete audit trail. Exportable compliance-ready logs help biotech teams meet regulatory requirements for document access tracking across FDA and EMA submission processes. Your eTMF, QMS or submission system stays the system of record; Peony controls and records the copies that leave it.
Can Peony staff see our documents?
No. Peony staff can't open, move or edit the documents in your room; they see account-level information only, such as usernames, NDA signing status and account status. Your documents aren't used to train AI: Peony's LLM providers work under data-handling agreements that prohibit training on customer content. Documents are encrypted with AES-256 at rest.
How does AI help biotech teams manage research documents?
Peony's AI document Q&A lets you ask questions across clinical study reports, patent filings, and regulatory documents in natural language and get instant answers cited to the exact page. Find specific compound data, trial endpoints, or regulatory references without opening individual PDFs — available on the Business plan ($30/admin/month). You can switch it on per group, so a partner's diligence team can ask questions too.
How quickly can a biotech BD team set up a data room for a pharma licensing negotiation?
Usually within minutes and with no sales call: Peony's median time from sign-up to first uploaded document is 4 min 19 s (State of M&A Data Rooms, Q3 2026 edition). A BD team preparing for a licensing meeting can: 1. Create the room and, on the Data Room plan, let AI room generation draft the folder tree. 2. Upload IND filings, CMC data, clinical protocols and patent portfolios. 3. Create one group per partner and set its folder permissions. 4. Turn on the NDA gate, dynamic watermark and download blocking for each group. 5. Copy each group's link and send it before the meeting ends. Legacy VDRs require onboarding calls and weeks of setup — by which time your negotiation window may have closed.
What support does Peony provide biotech teams during active licensing negotiations?
Peony support runs 24/7 on every plan through in-app chat, handled directly by the Peony team, and urgent deal blockers flagged by email are typically answered within a few hours. Everyone you speak to on Peony support has M&A experience at elite boutiques or bulge-bracket banks, VC experience, or has raised $1M+ themselves. That matters when a pharma partner's diligence team cannot access clinical data during a time-sensitive licensing review. Deal Team adds priority support and a dedicated account manager, and enterprise teams can book a demo with our deal infrastructure team.
Can I try Peony before I pay?
Yes. Peony's Data Room plan has a 7-day free trial you start yourself, with no credit card, and it never converts to paid on its own. Rooms, files, links, analytics and NDA settings carry over when you upgrade. AI features, such as AI document Q&A and AI room generation, switch on once you're on a paid plan. To see AI features first, book a demo.
Related guides for biotech and life sciences teams
- The full document checklist, folder by folder, is in the biotech data room guide.
- For partnering and co-development, read the pharma partnering out-licensing playbook.
- Selling the company or an asset? See the biotech M&A data room guide.
- Running a study with a CRO and sites? See clinical trial data rooms.
- Comparing providers? See Peony vs ShareVault, and plan details and the trial on pricing.
Why do biotech companies use Peony?
Biotech companies use Peony to protect IP, share clinical data under NDA, and run licensing due diligence in minutes — without paying per-page VDR fees.Join biotech teams already using Peony to share clinical data, manage IP portfolios, and run licensing due diligence — securely and affordably.
- Partners, investors and reviewers never need a seat or an account.
- Unlimited rooms on Data Room: three partnering processes cost the same as one.
- Live in minutes: median 4 min 19 s from sign-up to first uploaded document.
No credit card · 7-day Data Room trial that never auto-charges · partners and investors view free, no account · 24/7 support