Healthcare Brew collects the top 21 mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts, in order of size in billions.

Why be concerned?

As larger owners control more of a market, they become distant from individual consumer needs. They're more apt to drop a relatively low-grossing product, leaving consumers stranded. Their size inhibits start-up competitors, both in initiative and in funding. And when Big Health loses competitive pressure, the natural cap on pricing disappears.

To be clear, M&A or buyouts, as such, are fine. There's a natural ebb and flow to markets.

However, I have a major problem with ambitious players leveraging our lawmakers to weaken and scoop up competitors. That happens far more often than most people realize, and it's just plain immoral.

https://www.healthcare-brew.com/stories/2024/07/11/major-m-and-a-hed-largest-healthcare-m-and-a-buyouts-in-2024

Largest healthcare M&A, buyouts in 2024

Here’s a list of the largest healthcare transactions of 2024 (so far).

JULY 11, 2024    |   4 MIN READ

We’re a little over the halfway mark in 2024, and healthcare companies around the country have been inking major deals to expand their portfolios.

To reflect on the year’s biggest moves so far, Healthcare Brew went through recently updated data from global market data research company PitchBook and company public disclosures to compile a list of the largest (finalized) mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts in the US as of July 8.

PitchBook collects information by tracking control acquisitions and leveraged buyouts, including asset acquisitions, corporate divestitures, corporate asset purchases, spinoffs, and asset divestitures, according to the firm. Final deal values represent the total amount of equity and debt used in the transaction, according to PitchBook.

Here’s PitchBook’s list of top 20 deals of 2024 (so far):

1. Cardiovascular medical device company Shockwave Medical: Acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $13.1 billion on April 5.
2. Healthcare analytics company Cotiviti: Bought out by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $5.6 billion on February 14.
3. Alpine Immune Sciences, an immunotherapy developer: Acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals for $4.9 billion on April 10.
4. Immunotherapy developer CymaBay Therapeutics: Acquired by Gilead Sciences for $4.3 billion on March 22.
5. Edwards Lifesciences’s critical care product group, a hemodynamic monitoring tech company: Acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company for $4.2 billion on June 3.
6. Urinary and bowel dysfunction treatment device maker Axonics: Acquired by Boston Scientific for $3.7 billion on January 8.
7. Obesity drug developer Carmot Therapeutics: Acquired by Roche for $ 3.3 billion on January 29.
8. Biotech company Morphic Therapeutic: Acquired by Eli Lilly for $3.2 billion on July 8.
9. International Flavors & Fragrances’s pharma solutions arm, a developer and manufacturer of pharmaceutical excipients: Acquired by Roquette Freres for $2.9 billion on March 19.
10. Biopharmaceuticals company Deciphera Pharmaceuticals: Acquired by ONO Pharmaceutical for $2.4 billion on April 29.
11. Ambrx, an oncology therapeutics company: Acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $2.4 billion on January 8.
12. ILC Dover, a specialty engineering company: Acquired by Ingersoll Rand for $2.3 billion on March 25.
13. Biologics developer Inhibrx: Acquired by Sanofi for $2.2 billion on January 23.
14. Cancer treatment developer ProfoundBio: Acquired by Genmab for $1.8 billion on April 3.
15. Aiolos Bio, a biotech focused on respiratory and inflammatory conditions: Acquired by GSK for $1.4 billion on January 9.
16. Silk Road Medical, the developer of a stroke prevention platform: Acquired by Boston Scientific for $1.3 billion on June 18.
17. Genentech’s biologics manufacturing unit: Acquired by Lonza Group for $1.2 billion on March 20.
18. Specialty practice management tech company Specialty Networks: Acquired by Cardinal Health for $1.2 billion on January 31.
19. Immune-mediated disease therapy maker HI-Bio: Acquired by Biogen for $1.2 billion on May 22.
20. Drug infusion services provider Paragon Healthcare: Acquired by Elevance Health for $1 billion on January 4.
21. Plastic packaging maker Berry Global’s health, hygiene, and specialties unit: Acquired by Glatfelter for $1 billion on February 7.

Overall, there have been 686 deals so far in 2024, totaling $110.4 billion, according to PitchBook data.

For comparison, the firm reported that 2021 saw the most deals (2,611) in recent years, resulting in $444.2 billion. There were 2,143 deals totaling $263.4 billion in 2022, while 2023 saw 1,834 deals for a total of $297 billion.

This list does not include rumored, canceled, or pending deals—including Merck’s planned $3 billion acquisition of ophthalmology biotech company EyeBio.

Cassie McGrath joined Healthcare Brew in May 2024. She previously worked for the Boston Business Journal, MassLive, Frontline PBS, GBH, the Daily Hampshire Gazette and the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. She graduated from the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2021 with a dual degree in journalism and political science and a certificate in international relations.