2021 M&A Review: The MedTech Sector

It has now become customary for the MedWorld Advisors team to do a look back at the previous year and this year will be no different.  

Looking back at 2021, after a tumultuous 2020 with much uncertainty, massive strides were made for M&A deals in MedTech. The year started with a bang, with the first quarter alone accounting for 28.8% of the total deals announced, undoubtedly propelled by the promise of vaccines and the hopes of pre-pandemic normalcy. The rest of the year tried to keep up, but the resurgence of the evolved virus and varying responses around the world saw M&A deals have a minor but steady decline.  

Multiple billion-dollar deals from both strategic and financial buyers were made, some notables included private equity firms Blackstone, Carlisle and Hellman & Friedman agreeing to jointly acquire Medline Industries for a smooth $30.0B, as well as the Oracle Corporation agreeing to acquire Cerner Corp for $28.8B in efforts to expand their reach into the rapidly growing digital health sector. Boston Scientific was the true giant of the year, announcing 6 acquisitions, 3 of which were also multi-billion-dollar deals. (Look for our list of 2021 deals in the near future!) 

Most encouraging, despite the on-going and ever-changing pandemic, 29.5% of M&A deals made in 2021 were cross-border. Strategic buyers drove most cross-border deals in the hopes of adding innovations to their portfolios, helping with the supply chain issues, as well as expanding their footprint into high-growth emerging markets. Overall, North America dominated the MedTech market and accounted for 56.7% of total target companies throughout the year, facilitated by the low cost of money and a slower 2020 which left them with lots of dry powder (at least for the private equity firms). Europe and Asia-Pacific followed, accounting for 24.0% and 11.4% of total deals, respectively.  

Given the dynamic nature of the pandemic over the last two years, there have also been numerous impacts on segments within the industry. New trends have emerged while others who were slow in acceptance prior to the pandemic have suddenly been pushed to the forefront, such as remote care, digital health, diagnostics and remote patient monitoring, just to name a few. In our future blog we will study some of those segments and transactions around the world.