The healthcare industry has reached a crossroads. A future outside the European Union is looming for a sector among the most vocal about the perils of a no-deal Brexit, while takeovers of companies and assets are at a record high. The scale of those mergers and acquisitions has forced politicians, scientists, entrepreneurs and investors alike to sit up and take notice. The government has placed healthcare at the centre of its industrial strategy, a vision of an ultra-modern, high-tech, high-growth economy, but critics are asking how that squares with the frenetic dealmaking of 2018. Healthcare buyouts have reached $109.3 billion, or more than £85 billion, in Britain so far this year, surpassing the previous record of $87.2 billion set in 2000 during the dot-com boom.
The future of the UK’s £70bn ($89bn) health care industry was uncertain amid a record number of mergers and acquisitions and ahead of Brexit uncertainty. Britain’s biggest drugs group said it would be “disappointed” if its rivals were allowed to buy AstraZeneca. Global health care deals were also heading towards their own $474bn record. The UK government said health care was at the centre of its industrial strategy. The sector has warned about the threat to it of a no-deal Brexit. The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry and Bio Industry Association said there was a lack of clarity in the Brexit deal about the future.