The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and other competition agencies across the globe have increased their scrutiny of transactions in the life sciences industry. The FTC has spearheaded the formation of a Multilateral Pharmaceutical Merger Task Force to explore potentially new theories of harm and new ways to analyze the competitive effects of proposed transactions. At the same time, the industry continues to be innovative in its deal making to manage the technical, regulatory and commercial risks. This fireside chat addressed the unique antitrust issues that arise when smaller innovative life sciences companies collaborate with or get acquired by big pharma, and how the new trends in antitrust scrutiny might affect such transactions.