On January 23, Law360 quoted Jayne Juvan on the continuing evolution in health care and life sciences and the resulting boom in mergers and acquisitions.

“We are predicting that health care [and] life sciences M&A will continue at a robust pace into 2018,” Jayne commented. “Conditions are ripe for this year to be one of the most active in this industry on record.”

On the approach private equity acquirers are taking in this industry, Jayne commented, “Over the years, private equity firms have become much more intelligent in their approach to health care investments, Departing from a more generalist model in which their executives oversaw transactions in a variety of industries, they are hiring individuals with deep industry expertise, including individuals formerly employed by regulators, so that they can share in the boom.”

Private equity buyers – and the large sums of capital they are raising – are having a big impact on mergers and acquisitions in the health care industry. Jayne told Law360 that she expects this to result in more consolidation in areas including eye care, behavioral health and dental practice management.

She also remarked that compliance is critical for health care and life sciences transactions.

“Our investor clients often remark that they feel like regulatory landmines are everywhere in health care and they need to have their attorneys on speed dial,” she said. “They do not want to be in a situation where they have invested in a company such as Theranos, which is alleged to have made unsubstantiated claims about the efficacy of its health care technology and also had a substandard compliance effort that led to federal investigations.”