Intercept Pharmaceuticals’ acquisition by Alfasigma comes three months after the FDA again rejected the biotech’s drug as a treatment for the fatty liver disease NASH. But Intercept still has rare liver disease assets, and Italy-based Alfasigma says acquiring the company will help it expand in gastroenterology and hepatology.

The Federal Trade Commission only gets notified when a merger/acquisition deal value is above $100-$110 million, so smaller deals nonetheless lead to a slow consolidation of the market. In conference remarks, FTC Chair Lina Khan outlined the ways in which the agency is trying to counter this phenomenon.

Peanut allergy therapy Palforzia, which Nestlé acquired in a multi-billion dollar deal, has been sold to allergy product company Stallergenes Greer. Palforzia was the first FDA-approved drug for peanut allergy, but its sales were hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Healthcare M&A deals are expected to pick up over the next few months, and one expert is predicting that the biopharma sector in particular will see especially robust activity. M&A lawyer Matt Gardella said there are three sets of market circumstances that will lead to an influx of biopharma deals: a looming patent cliff, shrinking valuations and a weak IPO market.

M&A activity in the healthcare sector continued to decline in the second quarter of 2023, with the number of deals reaching its lowest point in three years. However, a new report predicted that M&A activity could increase in the second half of this year due to healthcare companies’ continually shrinking valuations and their divestitures of non-core assets.

M&A activity among hospitals and health systems increased in Q2 of 2023 — there were 20 deals in Q2 compared to 15 deals in Q1, according to a new report. This surge brought Q2’s M&A activity levels in line with those observed before the pandemic. Q2’s 20 deal marks the highest number of announced transactions for hospitals and health systems since Q1 of 2020.

CorEvitas brings Thermo Fisher Scientific registries that gather data about how approved therapies are working in the real world. The acquisition will complement PPD, the contract research organization that Thermo Fisher purchased in 2021.

UnitedHealth Group’s Optum is acquiring Amedisys through an all-cash transaction for $101 per share, the companies announced Monday. The move represents a continuing shift to home-based care, several experts said.

In the 12 months leading up to May 15, health services deal volumes decreased just 4% from the year prior, a new report from PwC found. There was a 15% decrease in deal values.

Eli Lilly’s acquisition of Dice Therapeutics comes eight months after the biotech reported positive data from a Phase 1 study in psoriasis. Dice develops oral small molecule drugs intended to offer alternatives to biologic drugs that are injected or infused.

Healthcare dealmakers must prepare for a new law and a recently-introduced bill in the California Senate, both of which aim to increase oversight in the healthcare M&A space. This is a legislative trend other states are beginning to participate in too — such as New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Novartis is acquiring Chinook Therapeutics in a $3.2 billion deal that brings two late-stage drug candidates for a rare kidney disorder. The Novartis drug pipeline already has a molecule in late-stage development for the same kidney disease, which could raise questions from antitrust regulators.

The Federal Trade Commission is suing to stop Amgen’s acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics. But rather than claiming product overlap, the agency contends Amgen will use its influence to keep at bay competition for Horizon’s products.

Kaiser Permanente announced that it expects to acquire Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health. Kaiser’s move is part of a larger plan — Geisinger will be the first health system to join Risant Health, a new company Kaiser launched to operate nonprofit health systems under value-based care models. Kaiser said it expects to invest $5 billion in Risant and fold five or six health systems into the company over the next five years.

Adaptimmune and TCR2 Therapeutics have complementary technologies and an aligned strategy of developing cell therapies for solid tumors, but this marriage is preceded by divorce. Before consummating the TCR2 deal, Adaptimmune ended an alliance with a larger pharmaceutical company.

Rumors of the deal first surfaced in January, with some dismissing the idea. Several experts say the deal makes sense for CVS Health, as it looks to expand into primary and value-based senior care.

Sun Pharmaceuticals is acquiring Concert Pharmaceuticals, a biotech whose lead program has positive data from two late-stage clinical trials in alopecia areata. The deal gives Sun Pharma a drug candidate that could match up against hair loss drugs from two big pharmaceutical companies.

CVS Health announced investments this week in Carbon Health, Monogram Health and Array Behavioral Care. There have also been rumors that the company is exploring a $10 billion deal with primary care company Oak Street Health.

LeanTaaS acquired healthcare automation company Hospital IQ. The two companies made the deal because their products complement each other — Hospital IQ provides staff optimization solutions, while LeanTaaS makes software to optimize capacity for operating rooms, infusion centers and inpatient beds.

Whether it was Amazon’s buy of One Medical or CVS Health’s acquisition of Signify Health, retailers made waves in healthcare this year. Across all of the deals, it’s clear that expanding access to medical services is the key goal, experts said. And this is only the beginning.

Some industry experts seem skeptical of the rumored deal between Amwell and Talkspace, while others disagree. The rumored purchasing price is $200 million at about $1.50 per share.

Merck is acquiring Imago BioSciences, a clinical-stage biotech whose lead drug is in development for myelofibrosis and other blood cancers. The deal gives the pharmaceutical giant a small molecule that could provide an alternative to a class of drugs that introduce dangerous side effects.

Two years after the close of the merger that formed Viatris, the company is acquiring Oyster Point Pharma and Famy Life Sciences to expand its scope in ophthalmology, one of three therapeutic areas it is now focusing on for revenue growth.

Hint Health acquired AeroDPC, a software company and electronic medical record for direct primary care clinics. As a result, Hint will release a new product in 2023 that combines tools from both companies.

Liver disease remains the focus of Genfit, despite a high-profile clinical trial failure in the fatty liver disease NASH. The company is building out its pipeline by acquiring Versantis, a clinical-stage biotech whose most advanced drug candidate brings a novel approach to treating a deadly chronic liver disease complication that has no FDA-approved therapies.

Rising deal premiums and shrinking profit margins are threatening the sustainability of the traditional approach to mergers and acqusitions, according to a report by Accenture. The firm expects growth-minded companies will turn to other pathways.

Pfizer and Merck have each won FDA approvals in the past year for new pneumococcal vaccines, but GSK aims to top both of them with its $2.1 billion acquisition of Affinivax. That biotech’s Phase 3-ready vaccine candidate addresses more bacterial strains than any pneumococcal vaccines currently available.

Collegium Pharmaceutical’s acquisition of BioDelivery Sciences International brings a pain drug that’s administered in a different way than its current lineup of medicines. The deal also gives Collegium a way to break into the neurology market.

Epilepsy is a small part of UCB’s neurology pipeline, but its proposed Zogenix acquisition would broaden the Belgium-based drugmaker’s ability to address that market. Zogenix’s Fintepla is approved in the U.S. and Europe for a rare type of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome, and is in development for other rare epilepsies.

Novartis is acquiring gene therapy developer Gyroscope Therapeutics and its lead program, a potential treatment for the vision loss disorder geographic atrophy. It’s the latest in a series of M&A moves made by Novartis to build up its gene therapy pipeline.