Trends That Shaped Healthcare Dealmaking In 2025

Mike Riella’s commentary was featured in a Law360 story about the trends that shaped healthcare dealmaking in 2025.

Mike remarked on the increasing competitive pressure from biotechs in China, which is quickly becoming a major global hub for biotech innovation. According to Mike, this trend isn't reversing course anytime soon.

"It seems as though as long as there's innovation, and it's legally feasible to do cross-border deals with companies in China, that these deals would continue," he said. "Acquirers are just looking to see where there's innovation."

Mike further noted that the tumultuous start to the year for dealmaking has eased in recent months. Mike attributed the increase in megadeals in 2025 to a bigger “appetite” from large life sciences companies willing to place larger bets for bigger growth in coming years.

Mike pointed out that many of the bigger deals in 2025 involved later-stage assets. “It may just be that in the past year the deals were sufficiently late stage that they merited the upfront investment.”