Federal antitrust enforcers at the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continue to take an aggressive stance in healthcare. Two recent developments underscore the trend.
Health Law Scan
Legal Insights and Perspectives for the Healthcare Industry
In the most recent edition of our Global Healthcare Transactions Series, we focus on the Asia-Pacific region, which saw a wave of healthcare activity in 2020 including record high deals and a new peak for disclosed value. These gains can be attributed to macroeconomic trends such as aging populations and increasingly affordable healthcare, and favorable government policies encouraging local manufacturing and development of healthcare products.
Members of our emerging business and technology team recently hosted a webinar on seed financing structures for digital health companies. The program, led by partner Benjamin David Novak and associate Jessica Lee, discussed the market trends in digital health company financings as well as the various deal structures frequently used in seed financings.
Our healthcare team recently launched a publication series highlighting the global impact of COVID-19 on healthcare transactions. Around the globe, the healthcare industry has faced similar issues from the unprecedented pandemic, prioritizing their operational response to COVID-19. Now, as countries begin to reopen, healthcare entities may refocus on planning for long-term transformation of their business models. In this series, we will explore how the pandemic impacted healthcare transactions in specific regions and what we can expect in a post-pandemic world.
On December 8, 2020, Judge Gerald Pappert in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Pennsylvania attorney general (AG) to preliminarily enjoin a proposed merger between Thomas Jefferson University (TJU) and Albert Einstein Healthcare Network (Einstein). The case was widely watched as the FTC sought to show that the combination of these two urban hospital systems would harm consumers.
Our corporate and business transactions and finance teams published a LawFlash on the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) recent procedural notice to Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) lenders addressing the treatment of PPP loans in the context of a “change of ownership” of the borrower and whether prior SBA approval must be obtained in such transactions. This LawFlash provides key takeaways for healthcare clients and healthcare industry investors with respect to M&A transactions involving PPP borrowers.
Partners Ayesha Waheed and Asem Bakenova and associate Daniyar Zhumakhanov have contributed to the PFI Global Infrastructure Report 2020 with an article discussing Kazakhstan’s public-private partnership (PPP) law and its application to the healthcare sector.
In this LawFlash, our antitrust and competition team details increased jurisdictional and filing fee thresholds under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act announced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on January 28.