Policy & Regulation

Global Healthcare M&A Hit a 5-Year High in 2025 — And PwC Says 2026 Will Be Even Bigger. Here Is What It Means for India.

By BHC, Editor in Chief · April 01, 2026 · 5 min read

BHC, Editor in Chief — Global Healthcare M&A Hit a 5-Year High in 2025 — And PwC Says 2026 Will Be Even Bigger. Here Is What It Means for India.

Summary

  • PwC's global healthcare M&A report shows a 46% surge in deal values in 2025, with 2026 expected to accelerate further. Here is a complete analysis and what it means specifically for Indian healthcare companies.

The global healthcare mergers and acquisitions market has entered a new phase. PwC's latest healthcare deals analysis reveals that global health industry M&A deal values rose 46% year-on-year in 2025 — even as overall deal volumes declined 5%. The interpretation is clear: investors are making fewer deals, but far larger and more strategically considered ones. The era of opportunistic, volume-driven deal-making in healthcare is over. The era of strategic portfolio construction has begun.

"In 2026, the most successful deals will seek to shape the future of healthcare — creating a more resilient, tech-enabled, and patient-centred health system."

Looking into 2026, PwC's Global Health Industries Deals Leader Jaymal Patel is direct: the most successful deals will be those that seek to shape the future of healthcare — creating more resilient, tech-enabled, affordable, and patient-centred health systems. For Indian healthcare companies — in biopharma, diagnostics, digital health, and hospital services — understanding the forces driving this global M&A wave is a commercial and strategic imperative.

**The Regional Picture

While the Americas continued to dominate in deal value — capturing nearly two-thirds of total global deal value and nine megadeals — Asia Pacific showed the strongest volume growth, up 12% in 2025. Much of that growth was driven by a 53% surge in China-related dealmaking, with investors attracted to China's pharmaceutical innovation landscape. China now hosts roughly one-third of global clinical trials and ranks as the world's second-largest developer of new medicines. Regulatory reforms have accelerated approvals, lowered R&D costs, and enabled rapid transitions from discovery to human trials, attracting Western firms seeking licensing partnerships.

India, by comparison, captured a fraction of this M&A activity despite having significant assets in generics manufacturing, diagnostics, and increasingly in health-tech. The gap between India's actual healthcare innovation capability and its representation in global M&A deal flow is a structural problem — and an opportunity.

**The 2035 Megatrend: $1 Trillion Shifting Toward Prevention and Home Care

PwC's most consequential long-term projection: by 2035, more than $1 trillion in global healthcare spending is expected to pivot toward prevention, personalised care, home-based services, and digital health ecosystems. This is not a marginal shift — it is a fundamental restructuring of where healthcare value is created and captured.

For Indian companies, this projection should inform strategic planning right now. The Indian healthcare market is already seeing early signals of this shift: the rapid growth of home health services, the expansion of preventive health check-up packages, and the increasing sophistication of digital health platforms. Companies that are building in these categories today are building for the megatrend, not against it.

**What Indian Healthcare Companies Should Be Doing

PwC identifies digital health — including AI-driven drug discovery, ambient scribing, and virtual care — as essential for efficiency and addressing workforce shortages. These are areas where Indian companies have genuine technical capability. The challenge is packaging that capability in ways that are credible to global strategic buyers and investors.

For Indian biopharma companies, the $300 billion in medicines expected to lose patent protection over the next seven years creates a specific opportunity: complex generics, biosimilars, and next-generation therapies that Indian manufacturers are well-positioned to develop. For diagnostics companies, the shift toward prevention and early detection creates demand for affordable, scalable diagnostic solutions — exactly the space Indian companies have been innovating in.

**BHC Perspective

At Bengaluru Health Community, we believe that Indian healthcare companies are significantly underrepresented in global M&A, not because of a lack of innovation, but because of a lack of strategic preparation for cross-border transactions. Building for global regulatory standards, developing relationships with international strategic buyers early, and maintaining the financial discipline that makes Indian companies attractive acquisition targets — these are capabilities that can be developed proactively. The global M&A wave identified by PwC is an opportunity. Capturing it requires preparation that starts now.

**Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much did global healthcare M&A deal values grow in 2025?
A: Global healthcare M&A deal values rose 46% year-on-year in 2025, even as deal volumes declined 5%, indicating a shift toward fewer but larger, more strategic transactions.

Q: Which region showed the strongest healthcare M&A growth in 2025?
A: Asia Pacific showed the strongest volume growth at 12%, led by a 53% surge in China-related dealmaking driven by China's growing pharmaceutical innovation capacity.

Q: What is PwC's 2035 healthcare megatrend projection?
A: PwC projects that more than $1 trillion in global healthcare spending will shift toward prevention, personalised care, home-based services, and digital health ecosystems by 2035.