Digital Health Data Draws Big Money

Mergers and acquisitions in the eHealth sector are surging, and data is driving some of the biggest deals in health care. Deal volume in the digital health space went from 68 transactions in 2013 to 157 announced in 2016, a 131% increase. Transaction levels remained in the double-digits from 2000 until 2012, when 103 digital deals were recorded. Since 2014, when annual deal volume reached triple-digits, M&A has grown almost exponentially. Dollar volume shot up as well, growing from annual totals in the hundreds of millions early in the century to seven-figure totals beginning in 2005. The $11.5 billion total logged in 2009 was something of a milestone. The $20.2 billion total posted in... Read More »

Financial Buyers Announce 59 Deals in Q1:17

Financial buyers, which include real estate investment trusts and private equity firms, are not the dominant players in the health care M&A market. Their participation depends on many factors, with valuations being an important determinant, (see chart below). Middle-market private equity firms, in particular, have had a hard time getting into and then winning auctions for health care entities in the past few years, as strategic buyers have outspent or even pre-empted auctions. In the first quarter, financial buyers accounted for 15% of the deal volume, with 59 deals, which is slightly lower than the previous four quarters. The first quarter featured eight deals that topped the $1.0... Read More »

Q1:17 eHealth Deals Rise 57%

Merger and acquisition activity in the eHealth sector surged in the first quarter, as investors stuck with healthcare information technology in the face of the Republicans’ effort to upend the Affordable Care Act. Deal volume rose 57% to 47 transactions compared with the previous quarter, and was up 24% compared with the first quarter in 2016. This recent quarter accounted for 28% of the 166 deals announced in the previous 12 months. Source: HealthCareMandA.com, April 2017 Of the 47 deals announced in Q1:17, only six disclosed a price, for a total of $1.9 billion. This quarter’s spending represents a 586% increase compared with the previous quarter, but a 57% decrease from the same quarter... Read More »

Health Care Deals Slide in April 2017

April usually doesn’t feel like February, at least, weather-wise. As far as healthcare mergers and acquisitions go, however, deal volume in April 2017 (103 deals) feels a lot like February’s deal volume (102). The chart below shows the clear winners and losers in April 2017. Deal volume was down 29% compared with the previous month (March, 145 deals), and slid 12% compared with the year before (April 2016, 141 deals). Healthcare services deal volume accounted for just 50% of April’s preliminary total. The services sectors typically account for higher percentages than the technology sectors (although that trend is reversed when it comes to dollar volume). The services side... Read More »

Sartorius AG Scores Two More Deals

Sartorius AG (FWB: SRT), a German pharmaceutical and laboratory equipment provider, has expanded with the acquisition of a medical device company and a digital health company for a combined total of $392.5 million. Sartorius operates through two divisions: bioprocess solutions and lab products & services. On March 3, 2017, Sartorius acquired privately-held Essen BioScience Inc. from SFW Capital Partners for $320 million. Essen develops and manufactures instruments, software, reagents and consumables which enable researchers to remotely image and quantify a wide variety of cellular processes over time. Through this acquisition, Sartorius significantly expands its portfolio for... Read More »

Bracket Changes Hands Again

It may not be news to digital health sector watchers that Bracket, a privately held clinical trial technology provider, was sold again. On March 28, 2017, San Francisco private equity firm Genstar Capital purchased the company for an undisclosed price. Bracket, a Pennsylvania-based clinical trial technology, has changed hands several times over the years. Bracket serves biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, as well as clinial research organizations. It leverages Bracket eCOA™, a platform for electronic clinical outcomes assessments that collects information from patients (ePRO), clinicians (eClinRO) and other observers (eObsRO). The company started off as a division of United... Read More »