Topic

M&A

Deal Trends – In Focus: Life Sciences – September 2026

Our partners share insights on the trends shaping dealmaking in the Life Sciences sector—and what to watch in the months ahead. September 2026 · Life Sciences Featuring insights from Ryan Murr, Sebastian Fain, and Branden Berns. DEAL ACTIVITY What’s driving deal activity in the sector right now? Murr: Life Sciences deal volume is up substantially,…

How ‘Most Favored Nation’ Regime Affects Biopharma Deals

This article describes the current state-of-play with MFN and key deal drafting considerations. Life sciences dealmaking is running at a record pace — straight into a pricing regime that is still being written. According to Gibson Dunn’s July biopharma M&A survey, the first half of 2026 saw 13 announced acquisitions of public biopharma targets ranging…

Biopharma M&A: Mid-Cap Public-Target Market Survey (First-Half 2026)

In the first six months of 2026, acquirers announced 13 qualifying acquisitions of public biopharma targets worth $66.6 billion in upfront consideration. This survey examines that period and the surge within it: what is driving it, how the deals are structured, and what it means for the parties negotiating the next one. Focusing on the…

Contingent Value Rights: A Drafting Guide for Biopharma M&A

Contingent value rights have become a defining feature of biopharma M&A, appearing in under 10% of mid-cap public-target deals before 2019 but a quarter to a third of them in every year since 2023. They let a buyer pay less cash at signing while preserving upside for selling stockholders on a binary clinical, regulatory, or…

One and Done: FDA’s New Single-Trial Default and What It Means for Drug Developers, Investors, and Counsel

On February 18, 2026, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary and Vinay Prasad, then-Chief Medical and Scientific Officer and Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, published a landmark policy announcement in the New England Journal of Medicine that a single adequate and well-controlled pivotal trial — supplemented by confirmatory evidence — is now the…