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 »

Patheon Bought, Again

There has been a lot of interest in contract research organizations (CROs), contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), especially in the M&A market. Half-way through May 2017, 19 of these deals have been  announced. With 14 deals and $14 billion spent this year, CROs have taken the spotlight. But CDMO deals are picking up pace, accounting for 21% of the 19 deals and $7.3 billion spent this year. Most of that total derives from one deal. On May 15, 2017, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (NYSE: TMO) acquired Patheon N.V. (NYSE: PTHN), a CDMO focused on active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and finished drug product... Read More »

CRO Consolidation Tops $13 Billion in 2017

2017 is the year of the CRO deals. In the first four-and-a-half months of 2017, 17 deals targeting a CRO (contract research organization) have been announced, with disclosed spending of approximately $13.8 billion. Just a few weeks after Hellman & Friedman LLC took over the majority stake in Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) for $9.05 billion in April, the CRO market witnessed another mega deal. On May 11, 2017, INC Research Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: INCR) a contract research organization providing Phase 1 to Phase 4 clinical development services, announced that it merged with privately-held inVentiv Health in an all-stock transaction valued at $4.6 billion. The combination... 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 »

PE Firms Are Big on CROs

Private equity firms are taking big stakes in contract research organizations (CROs) in 2017. Through May 3, 12 CRO deals have been announced this year, up 140% from the same period last year, when only five deals were announced (these numbers do not include contract manufacturing organization deals). In late April, The Carlyle Group was rumored to be weighing the acquisition of Albany Molecular Research Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRI), a New York-based CRO. A week later, the private equity firm announced the sale of its majority stake in Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD), a global contract research organization that provides comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory... Read More »

DaVita Divests Seven Dialysis Clinics

DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) isn’t usually on the sell-side of dialysis deals. In fact, the company hasn’t announced a sale from its renal care division in the past five years. But in late March, the Federal Trade Commission ordered DaVita to divest its ownership in seven dialysis clinics. That order was part of a settlement resolving charges that DaVita’s $358 million acquisition of Renal Ventures Management, LLC would be anticompetitive. At the time of that deal’s announcement in August 2015, Renal Ventures operated 36 dialysis clinics in six states. The company’s two divisions, Multispecialty Physician Partners and Physician Venture Partners, operated infusion... Read More »