Dealmaking in healthcare: A mid-year pulse check
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Despite a year filled with macro uncertainty, deal making in healthcare remains active. Capital is continuing to flow to differentiated innovation, scalable platforms, resilient business models, and of course, AI. In today's episode, we'll unpack the five key themes that have taken shape across the global healthcare landscape. Welcome to JP Morgan's Making Sense. My name is Haley Trethaway and today I'm joined by Jerry Lee and Nick Richet, global co-heads of healthcare investment banking at JP Morgan. Nick and Jerry, thank you for joining.
Excited to be here. Thanks, Haley.
As our first topic, let's hit on the market backdrop. Jerry, I'll throw this to you. So we're at the halfway point of twenty twenty six. How would you describe the healthcare deal environment today and what's different versus earlier this year?
It has been an incredibly busy time the last several weeks, months, and quarters, and that's across the entire spectrum of MA, equity, debt, and the like. I would say starting on the equity side, as you know well, the XBI, especially in biotech, is at five-year highs. And every single week we are seeing record-setting pace across the floor. Spectrum of equity products, including converts, data-related follow-ons, and of course innovative IPOs. And I couldn't be more thrilled about what our team's accomplishing with our clients. Now, when we think about the last couple of months and weeks, you and Ben Burdett have led the largest ever biotech follow-on, right, for Revolutions Medicines. That same week, you led the largest ever biotech IPO.
for a Kylera. And so I'm incredibly proud of the way that I think your team has really kind of handled the opportunity and really led the charge on behalf of our clients and of course their patience to really fund that innovation of the next generation because the innovation is truly there and investors are clamoring to help finance that next wave of innovation. I would say the IPO markets and the XBI have certainly been buttressed, of course, by the MA markets, which Especially relative to early this year, relative to especially earlier last year, no comparison. And so I think people are seeing innovation as truly a global topic and sourcing that innovation over it makes sense to do so. We're seeing the US look at European companies.
We're seeing U European companies look at U.S. companies. Just the last couple of months, our team was fortunate to announce the largest deal of the year cross-border. That's Sun Pharma with Oregon. We did just did the largest ever biotech private sell side in Europe for tubulus to Gilead. So super exciting time, I would say people are looking across the size spectrum, thinking about the realm of the possible. Super exciting time. Super grateful for this team and thank you to all our clients for their support.
And Nick, what about you?
I think the story of healthcare year to date has really been bimodal. I mean, think about the bio and pharma super cycle for the last six months. Prior two years for services and health tech were actually Pretty frothy, pretty active, whereas bio was pretty quiet. I think going into the year we couldn't have been more excited. It felt like Every subsector was was firing on all cylinders. And then February happened. We got a combination of the SAS Pocalypse, which I know primarily is is a technology condition, but it spread pretty quickly into a bunch of different adjacencies, tech-enabled services. And then we got the Iran war at the end of February.
How is the healthcare deal environment different at the halfway point of 2026?
I would liken that combination of events very much so to Liberation Day. From April of last year. It did suck the wind out of services and tech for about four months. And here we are in June, and it feels like the engine is finally starting to move again. We're starting to see deals come to market. The public equity side is a little bit slower for services in health tech, but I think as we get into the back half of the year, it will catch up to where the MA market is. And We've seen some recent large announcements. I think there's a number that we're expecting in the back half of the year as well on the MA side.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–3:34
2
How is the healthcare deal environment different at the halfway point of 2026?
3:34–6:21
3
What are the biggest recent biotech equity transactions and why do they matter?
6:21–11:23
4
How are AI technologies shaping deal decisions and transaction structures today?
11:23–16:53
5
What supply‑chain resiliency strategies are pharma and health‑tech companies adopting?
16:53–20:25
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Making Sense
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