Medical device M&A continues steady pace

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the medical device sector of the healthcare industry has proceeded at a fairly steady pace between January 2009 and June 2012. That trend appears to be continuing, according to Irving Levin Associates' new report: The Medical Device Acquisition Report, Second Edition, 2012. In fact, the medical device sector has been the most active M&A sector in the healthcare industry through the first half of 2012.

During the time period covered in the report, the medical device M&A market accounted for 632 transactions. The 88 deals announced in the first half of 2012 amounted to approximately 14 percent of those deals, a level of activity that is on target to match or exceed the average number of deals transacted in each of the previous three years.

M&A transactions in the medical device sector has proceeded at a relatively steady rate of 173 to 185 deals per year for the past three-and-one-half years. Comparing the number of transactions that were announced in the first six months of 2012 (88) to those announced in the comparable period in 2011 (89), that level of activity appears to be continuing; the current year is on track to at least meet the 173 deals announced in all of 2011.

The dollar volume revealed in the first half of 2012 is a sharp departure from the comparable period in 2011, primarily due to a $21 billion transaction in April of 2011. Because of the inclusion of that huge transaction in 2011, the $14.9 billion revealed for medical device acquisitions in the first half of 2012 is much lower than the $48.15 billion revealed for this sector in the first half of 2011. At the same time, the first half of 2012 dollar volume has already exceeded the $13.9 billion reported for the entire year of 2009.