Industry Report: Healthcare Q1 2026 [Peakstone]

Key Report Highlights

• Healthcare M&A Activity Moderates After Pandemic Highs
  U.S. healthcare M&A activity declined to 898 transactions in 2025, down from more than 1,100 deals in the previous two years, reflecting normalization after the record pace seen earlier in the decade. Strategic buyers still represented the majority of deals, continuing a long-term trend of industry consolidation.
• Deal Values Reach New Highs Despite Lower Volume:
  Even with fewer transactions, the median transaction value rose sharply to approximately $151 million in 2025, the highest level in the past 25 years. This indicates continued demand for quality healthcare assets and a willingness among buyers to pay premium prices for scalable platforms.
• Healthcare Valuations Remain Strong Across Sub-Sectors:
  Median EV/EBITDA multiples in healthcare transactions averaged about 12.5x in 2025, highlighting sustained investor confidence in the sector’s long-term growth potential. Revenue multiples also remained relatively stable around the mid-2x range.
• Public Market Performance Diverges Across Healthcare Segments:
  Over the past decade, healthcare providers significantly outperformed other healthcare segments, generating roughly 136% stock performance from 2015–2025, while health technology and life sciences also posted strong gains. Biotech performance lagged relative to the broader sector.
• Large Strategic Transactions Continue to Shape the Market:
  Recent deals highlight ongoing consolidation among major healthcare players, including Cencora’s $5.0B acquisition of OneOncology and Sanofi’s $2.2B purchase of Dynavax Technologies, underscoring strong buyer appetite for innovative therapeutics, oncology platforms, and specialized healthcare services.

Peakstone Group is a Chicago-based, 40+ person investment bank that specializes in mergers and acquisitions advisory and capital raising. An Axial member since 2010, Peakstone works across a variety of industries and has marketed more than 280 deals on the Axial platform at the time of publication.

Peakstone is a trusted member of the Axial Partnership Program and contributes content and industry insights to Axial’s Middle Market Review. The following report is a Peakstone Group publication, which has been approved for Axial to share with its network.

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