Antitrust Trends in Technology, Life Sciences, and Healthcare

Healthcare remained a focus for federal and state antitrust enforcers in the third quarter of 2026. The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice were less active in bringing enforcement actions, but several developments are noteworthy for healthcare industry participants.

The third quarter of 2026 brought a greater reliance on behavioral remedies alongside continued focus on AI development, pricing algorithms, and dominant-firm conduct.

Building on the momentum from the first half of the year, dealmaking in the life sciences space remained robust in the third quarter of 2026.1 As before, a wide range of buyers — from Big Pharma to small and midsize companies — continued to use strategic M&A to build scale and add pipeline and commercial assets. The current antitrust environment continues to support this robust dealmaking, even as the agencies have shown the willingness to investigate and challenge transactions that present a clear horizontal overlap or a credible risk to future competition.

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