In the last 10 years, we have had periods when the media has reported healthcare M&A at its highest level ever. However, when you dig into the data used, it shows one large multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical merger is leading to those headlines. The flip side is that in some of those same periods primary middle-market portfolio company acquisitions in healthcare were flat, if not dead. What’s actually happening in 2022 is definitely an “it depends” scenario.

“As a threshold matter, private deals are not always reported publicly. So, data on exactly what is happening in the middle market isn’t always spot on. Often deal makers get a sense of what is happening anecdotally through their own experience, service providers, the media, and other sources of information. While many media outlets have reported healthcare M&A activity as flat in 2022, when you talk to investors, lenders, M&A counsel, and third-party transaction advisors, you get a very different picture. Those discussions lead to a picture of a marketplace that is extremely active, just possibly not in the ways buyers, sellers, and their advisors would prefer. Deals are happening, marketplace participants are working hard, but healthcare M&A is in a different place, with certain headwinds that historically we have known how to deal with and others that are new challenges,” says Ari Markenson, a Partner with law firm Venable LLP and a Contributor to Mergers & Acquisitions.