IAM/AST 4Q Report: Healthcare and pharma slips in latest patent deals but data still points to bumper 2019 for sector

Patent deals in the healthcare and pharma sector dropped from first place in the fourth quarter of 2019 to be replaced by industrials as the busiest area for transactions in the US. Data for the year overall, however, pointed to a big jump in healthcare and pharma transactions with evidence of growing patent activity in the medtech space in particular.  

According to the latest quarterly numbers from AST, the sector saw 31 deals involving 119 assets. That was down on the numbers for Q3 and for the second quarter when healthcare and pharma knocked software from the top spot as the most active sector, the first time in a decade that software lost its number one ranking.

Although its six-month run at the top of the table came to an end in Q4, deal activity in healthcare and pharma sector was up 20% overall in 2019 and accounted for 203 of the 1,176 deals that closed in the year.

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