Recent Healthcare Trends & Transactions

Week of March 3, 2025 | Vol. 15, Issue 9

Global Healthcare Transaction Activity

Source: Data aggregated from S&P Global Intelligence (March 3, 2025) Click above for more details.

U pcoming Events

Let's Meet!

Bourne Insights

Key Topics of Conversation this Week

The Trump administration appears to be relentlessly focused on rebuilding U.S. domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing -- as a matter of “national security.” Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE: LLY) announced plans to invest $27 billion in new U.S. manufacturing capacity as part of a broader reshoring strategy. This follows a closed-door meeting at the White House, at which President Trump reportedly warned the pharma executives that their companies would face penalties if they do not relocate manufacturing operations back to the United States. This $27 billion investment will include the construction of four new U.S. based drug manufacturing facilities (employing over 3,000 domestic technicians, scientists and other staff). Three of these facilities will focus on the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients that the U.S. pharma industry would typically import from abroad. The fourth facility will support the company’s growing portfolio of injectable drugs. Lilly has not provided much detail on these plans, such as the locations of the four new facilities, as the company is still in negotiations with several state and local governments. Read More

President Trump and the Republican Congressional majority continue to push to reduce federal government deficit spending. Most recently, the House Republicans were, in fact, successful in passing a budget resolution that calls on the Energy and Commerce Committee to identify $880 billion of cuts to the federal budget over the next ten years. It is difficult to see how this level of reduction can be generated without significant cuts to Medicaid. House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared to be preparing the public for Medicaid cuts by saying that Medicaid is “hugely problematic” due to fraud, waste and abuse in the program. Several obvious targets for savings, in our view, include the creation of a Medicaid block grant system, the elimination of federal matching payments for the ACA Medicaid expansion, and the implementation of Medicaid work requirements. In order to pass reconciliation bills and advance major legislation on party lines, both the Senate and the House must pass identical budget resolutions. It is not clear whether the Republicans are enough unified to do this. Read More

Global trade tensions are picking back up, which could be a challenge for pharma companies relying on imports of raw materials. President Trump announced that his previously paused 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico will go into effect on March 4, along with an additional 10% tariff on China. (This follows the announcement of a separate 25% tariffs on imports of cars and other goods from the European Union).

Trump had delayed the 25% import taxes on Canada and Mexico in early February after both countries promised to address fentanyl trafficking. However, the Trump administration indicated that fentanyl, illegal drugs, and criminality continues to enter the United States at “unacceptable levels.” Also, Trump reiterated that April 2 would be the implementation date for his reciprocal tariff policy. Read More

We anticipate a refocus on patient/consumer empowerment will be a key theme underlying President Trump’s healthcare policy. President Trump issued an executive order directly the Departments of the Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services to “rapidly implement and enforce” a framework to enforce his previous 2019 executive order on price transparency within 90 days. In his first administration, Trump ordered hospitals to publicly disclose the prices that patients and health plans “actually pay” for their medical services. More specifically, hospitals must publicly disclose the actual prices for up to 300 medical services in a standardized/machine-readable file that is easily comparable across hospitals and health plans. Health plans are also required to post their negotiated rates with these hospitals (as well as their out-of-network payments). The goal of this is to improve price transparency and empower patients and health plans to more intelligently shop for medical care. Hospitals have been resistant to these price transparency regulations, and the Biden administration subsequently did not enforce them. According to the Patient Rights Advocate, only 21.1% of hospitals are currently in compliance with the previous price transparency regulations, down from 34.5% from the first Trump administration. Read More

Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) announced a $4.1 billion acquisition of Solventum to expand its capabilities in cell and gene-based therapy (viral vector) manufacturing. Solventum’s purification and filtration business generated $1 billion in revenue in 2024 with mid/high-single digit growth expected in 2025 and beyond. This follows the $3.1 billion acquisition of Olink, a supplier of proteomics analysis equipment, which helps with protein biomarker discovery and complements Thermo’s mass spectrometry offerings. Thermo Fisher has experienced sub-optimal financial results at its CDMO business over the past year or so due to the wind down of COVID-19 projects, capital market pressures on small/mid-sized biopharma sponsors, and weak economic conditions for consumer-related businesses. Management commented that its CDMO revenue growth would return to “normal” levels in 2026. Read More