“We had the boom years of 2020 and 2021, then we had the ‘less busy’ years, and now hopefully the markets are coming out the other side.” That is how Sophie McGrath, partner at Goodwin, teed up a conversation with In Vivo in March 2026 about the evolving healthtech and biotech markets. She predicted a continuing upwards curve for investment and innovation in the immediate future. “Anecdotally, we’ve seen a pickup in the public markets this year for biotech. This has had a knock-on effect for private financing, as the life sciences funds are realizing some value out of those trends. They are able to gain liquidity when one of their investments IPOs and then recycle that capital and put it into new areas of investment,” McGrath said.
The current climate has also prompted interesting developments around M&A, as innovators find they can run a dual process of using the option of exiting by way of the capital markets or by way of M&A. “The IPO route is much more within the company’s control, whereas M&A is opportunistic, needing the attention of an interested buyer. “Fundamentally, a well-functioning capital market is a very important part of the ecosystem for biotech,” said McGrath, who has long experience in acting for companies, investors and management teams in areas like private and public financing, M&A IPOs and corporate restructuring. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, McGrath discussed half a dozen key factors driving change in the markets. These extend to the merits of private equity as a pool of capital and potential buyer in the medtech and healthtech sectors, the need to fish well in the talent pool and the trend towards maturing attitudes among companies claiming AI capability for their devices.
Read the In Vivo article for more.