Founders often talk about valuation as if it is a number buyers “push down” at the end of a process. A haircut after diligence. A tougher negotiating stance once exclusivity starts. A last-minute change to terms. That is not how most valuation reductions happen in life sciences and healthcare. Buyers usually start reducing valuation long before a price is agreed. They do it by tightening assumptions. They pressure test your story, then they translate what they find into model inputs:...

For most life sciences founders, value creation is instinctively linked to science. The strength of the data. The novelty of the mechanism. The size of the unmet need. These are, without question, foundational. But as companies move from discovery into development, and from development into capital markets or M&A conversations, another layer begins to matter just as much: how that science is understood, trusted, and contextualized by the outside world. This is where Medical Affairs and...

Download link can be found at the bottom of the post. Life sciences and healthcare M&A entered a new phase in 2025. After several years of constrained capital, valuation resets, and cautious dealmaking, transaction activity regained momentum. This rebound did not reflect a return to excess. Instead, it marked a recalibration toward disciplined transactions grounded in strategic clarity, operational readiness, and defensible value creation. Across both the United States and Europe, companies...