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.

Keep reading here.—CM

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The digital health startup market is recovering after a tough 2023.

The first half of this year has been characterized by smaller but more frequent venture capital (VC) deals, more early-stage deals, and a thawing IPO market, according to a report from digital health strategy group and venture fund Rock Health.

Overall, US digital health startups raised $5.7 billion in the first half of the year, Rock Health researchers found. While that’s slightly less than the first half of 2023 ($6.1 billion), the number of deals closed is on the uptick, with 266 closing in H1 2024 compared to 244 in 2023.

Keep reading here.—MA

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) frequently sets its sights on healthcare, which has previously included efforts to crack down on data privacy and ban noncompetes in contracts. Lately, the agency has turned its attention to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—the groups that negotiate drug prices between insurers and pharmaceutical manufacturers—to shed light on how they impact the healthcare industry.

On Tuesday, the FTC published an interim report as part of an ongoing investigation, which began in 2022, into drug affordability and access, raising concerns that PBMs have “significant influence” over which drugs are made available to patients and that the companies are setting increasingly higher prices. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the antitrust agency is preparing a lawsuit against the three largest PBMs regarding “business practices related to rebates brokered with drug manufacturers.”

Keep reading here.—CM

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