SubscribeAfter a year during which uncertainty in the equity markets became the new normal, many stakeholders are wondering whether the disruptions are behind us. A look at key indicators might lead one to say yes. The S&P Loan Index has returned to pre-pandemic levels, the default rate is significantly below the peak of 10% seen during the great financial crisis, and roughly $840 billion of M&A value was realized in 2020 versus $802 billion in 2019—and $290 million in Q1 2021 alone. But under the surface, several COVID-19-related factors and other market shifts still have the potential to lead to second-order or longer-term impacts.
Life Sciences Private Equity
HPE Miami 2021: Subsector Insights | Pharmacy
McDermott partner Karen Gibbs joined Matthew Thompson, general partner at Enhanced Healthcare Partners, and Drew Walk, chief executive officer at Soleo Health, in an insightful discussion of what’s next for investment in the pharmacy space.
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- New therapies and the accompanying technologies to deliver them make pharmacy an appealing space for investment in 2021. In particular, organizations that can find ways to effectively manage escalating costs will be successful.
- The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the value and game-changing solutions that pharmacy can bring to the healthcare ecosystem at large. Pharmacy is an end point of care, and its extraordinary innovation is driving better patient outcomes.
- Regulatory scrutiny is always evolving in the pharmacy industry and should remain top-of-mind for any company considering an investment in the space.
- A transition to true and effective value-based care in the pharmacy sector will require significant collaborating between payers, providers, suppliers and manufacturers.
- COVID-19 has created headwinds in this sector because pharmacy is downstream from elective surgeries and other elective care. There is a backlog of care stemming from the pandemic, however, which presents an opportunity for accelerated growth in the pharmacy space moving forward.
- Innovations that help establish “arm-in-arm” relationships between physicians and pharmacists will help drive [...]
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McDermott Will & Emery and EY during the 2021 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference: Election and Policy Implications: Healthcare Regulatory and Policy Outlook with the New Administration
The 2020 election gave Democrats the White House and control of both houses of Congress-an eleven seat majority in the House and Representatives, and a 50/50 split in the Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris available to break ties. This change in the political landscape will lead to shifts in the health policy and regulatory agenda.
The panel, featuring Eric Zimmerman, McDermott Global Health Practice Lead; Brian Fortune, Senior Managing Director, Farragut Square Group; Mara McDermott, Vice President, McDermott+Consulting; Heather Meade, Principal, Health Care Policy, Washington Council Ernst & Young; and Thomas Scully, General Partner, Welsh, Carson, Anderson, and Stowe, discussed advice for investors as change comes to Washington.
Below are the top takeaways for McDermott Will & Emery and EY during the 2021 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference: Election and Policy Implications: Healthcare Regulatory and Policy Outlook with the New Administration, click here to access the full webinar.
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THE TRANSITION
President Biden was sworn in on January 20, 2021, and one of his first orders of business has been confirming new cabinet officials. Some key officials, such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, were easily confirmed in a bipartisan vote. However, others- like the nominee for Secretary of the Department [...]
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What are the Life Science Transaction Trends in the Wake of the Sanitary Crisis?
In the second installment of McDermott’s webinar series, HPE Europe 2020: What are the Life Science Transaction Trends in the Wake of the Sanitary Crisis?, moderator and McDermott partner Emmanuelle Trombe and industry experts Joseph El Khoury of Natixis, Cédric Garcia of EY’s Life Science Group, Dr. Erich Tauber of Themis Bioscience and Daniel Teper of CYTOVIA Therapeutics shared lessons learned from the first half of 2020, when COVID-19 changed the world. The panelists also discussed the outlook for life sciences transaction trends in the second half of the year and beyond.
Proactive Due Diligence Considerations for Life Sciences Dealmakers
In today’s competitive and fast-paced life sciences dealmaking environment, buyers and investors are often unable to spend as much time on due diligence as they might like. Market players are often highly focused on the science itself and, as a result, may pay less attention to issues such as supply chain, intellectual property components and reimbursement. However, addressing these topics at the due diligence stage is critical—they can cause a deal to unravel if left unexamined, regardless of the strength of the science.
Due diligence standards and considerations vary significantly across life sciences subsectors— pharma, medical devices, digital health and AI are each governed by unique regulatory structures and operate in very different deal landscapes. Buyers and investors are well advised to consider end-game issues such as reimbursement options, protection for valuable IP and pathways to commercialization early in the planning process. Framing the areas of diligence focus around the value drivers of their target deal model and key contract elements requiring verification will allow buyers to leverage their diligence findings into an informed, forward-thinking action plan.
Reimbursement. When evaluating a potential life sciences transaction, it is never too early to start thinking about reimbursement. Due diligence should take into account the commercialization channel for the product and include engagement with data sources on alternative therapies and their reimbursement. If the product in view is entering an existing market, conversations with reimbursement specialists can help a buyer determine the best path to reimbursement. A product that is opening a new [...]
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Opportunities in Outsourced Pharmaceutical Services
Pharmaceutical outsourcing has emerged as a robust—and rapidly growing—subsector of the life sciences industry. As the push for efficiency continues, more pharmaceutical, biotech and medtech companies are turning to contract research organizations (CROs), contract development organizations, medical affairs outsourcing and other service providers for help bringing products to market, manufacturing and distributing products, and improving quality. This trend is creating exciting new opportunities for investors in this burgeoning space.
Several factors are driving this growth in pharmaceutical services outsourcing:
- Pharma companies are becoming more comfortable with outsourcing. Of outsourced service providers, CROs have the highest penetration, with approximately 50 percent of clinical trials outsourced. Other areas of outsourcing are far less penetrated, however, offering ample opportunity for investment. Consider researching opportunities in health economics or outcomes research market access, for example.
- The current health care/pharma environment is rich for pharma outsourcing. Biotech is thriving: capital is readily available, and the US Food and Drug Administration regulatory environment for approval of new products is favorable. On the pharmaceutical front, ongoing consolidation has fostered an efficiency mindset. And across the health care and life sciences space, big data is being harnessed in new ways that make outsourcing easier and more efficient than ever.
- We are in a period of great market fragmentation. The market is starting to skew toward earlier stage rather than big pharma companies. Trials also are increasingly designed with an emphasis on subpopulations and advanced analytics (such as specialty drugs targeted to specific genotypes). Traditional pharma often lacks [...]
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