The McDermott Will & Schulte HPE Miami 2026 conference took place March 4–5 in Miami Beach, Florida. More than 2,000 healthcare founders, investors, advisers, and leaders came together to discuss the structural and policy forces reshaping the health and life sciences investment landscape.
As HPE Miami’s official knowledge partner, McKinsey joined the conversations. Panelists were clear about the internal and external factors shaping private equity (PE) deals in healthcare in the near term. Talent, compliance, and operational excellence are increasingly valuable assets in firms, technology innovators are propelling deals, and global pharmaceutical companies are not to be ignored as they become stronger competitors in the space. With McDermott, we’ve outlined the major trends buyers and sellers discussed during the conference and their considerations as they position transactions for 2026 and beyond.
Performance and investment considerations
Operational excellence and strong expertise have become essential for healthcare PE performance. Panelists discussed five trends that may shape how buyers and sellers operate, approach deals, and invest in talent:
1. Operational execution will drive PE performance this year. In a live poll during an HPE Miami panel, participants ranked operational execution as the most significant determinant of near-term investment performance, over financial engineering. Attendees recognize a shift away from the traditional model of acquiring strong healthcare businesses and relying primarily on strategic guidance from the boardroom. Instead, PE firms are expected to have deep operational capabilities and specialized expertise within portfolio companies to move beyond high-level strategy and actively support operational improvements.
2. Compliance and quality are still central to value creation. Panelists agreed that compliance, quality management, and overall operational rigor are essential in PE value-creation strategies. In healthcare, regulatory oversight can materially affect enterprise value and transaction outcomes. Namely, quality failures, billing compliance issues, and regulatory enforcement actions can impact growth strategies and exit timelines.
3. Talent and leadership will be crucial investment criteria. Because many healthcare service platforms operate across multisite networks, effective organizations develop leadership capabilities across the workforce, beyond the executive team. For PE investors, talent diligence at target organizations is becoming as important as financial diligence. Evaluating leadership depth, succession planning, and management scalability can significantly influence investment decisions and outcomes.
4. Strategic discipline will be important when evaluating healthcare platforms. Panelists noted that top-performing healthcare platforms frequently succeed by focusing on a limited number of high-impact operational priorities rather than attempting to pursue too many initiatives simultaneously.
5. Creative deal structures can address valuation gaps. Differences in buyers’ and sellers’ valuation expectations can delay transactions or even stall the sale process, as several panelists cautioned. To help, investors are looking to more creative deal structures for smoother transactions, including corporate carve-outs, management partnerships, smaller initial acquisitions for platform builds, and the tying of transaction structure to future growth milestones.
Rebounds and regulatory readiness
Two areas—technology and pharmaceuticals—are emerging as spaces with the most deal potential in the coming year. Global pharmaceutical companies in particular have proven their ambition and diligence, making them areas of interest for buyers and sellers. Panelists discussed three pertinent trends:
1. Tech and AI-enabled services are driving deal momentum. In terms of deal momentum, 47 percent of HPE Miami poll respondents cited health IT- and AI-enabled services as the main driver, reflecting growing investor interest in platforms that help healthcare organizations navigate mounting costs and regulatory complexity. Buyers may consider prioritizing targets with scalable technology infrastructure and clear pathways for integrating AI into core healthcare workflows.
2. Replenished pharma pipelines are driving M&A recovery. Pharmaceutical companies largely continue to drive recovery in life sciences M&A activity as they seek to replenish drug pipelines, panelists told attendees. These deals are a priority considering that patent expirations are projected to eliminate nearly $300 billion in revenue by 2028.1 Since 2018, most new molecular entity revenues have originated from externally sourced innovations.2 As such, the life sciences industry has seen an increasing reliance on strategic partnerships, acquisitions, and licensing agreements as growth drivers.
3. Global drug development is strong, and life cycles are being compressed. Panelists reflected that a recent flurry of activity emerging from Asia, particularly in China and South Korea, has led to significant drug innovations. Companies pursuing cross-border licensing and development partnerships must have the right support in place to navigate regulatory frameworks involving intellectual property protections, export controls, data governance rules, and international clinical trial approvals.
What’s more, faster biosimilar entry, pricing reforms, and regulatory changes are shortening the window during which new therapies come to market and generate peak revenue. These shifts have forced pharmaceutical companies to accelerate development timelines and engage contract research organizations, contract development and manufacturing organizations, and regulatory advisers even earlier in the drug development process.
As firms move into the next 12 months, they can differentiate themselves better with higher levels of distinctive expertise, better operational discipline, stronger leadership, and more creative transaction structures. Folding these goals into their strategies can help firms seize deal opportunities and generate outsize returns.
A version of this recap was published by McDermott Will & Schulte.3 The above takeaways have been adapted for McKinsey.com.
1. “Life sciences: Dealmaking gains momentum as strategic pressures intensify,” McKinsey, February 13, 2026.
2. The Synthesis, “Pulse check: Key trends shaping biopharma dealmaking in 2025,” McKinsey, June 20, 2025.
3. “Healthcare private equity outlook: Takeaways from HPE Miami 2026,” McDermott Will & Schulte, March 30, 2026.