Photo of Hal Katz

Hal Katz

Hal has focused his practice on the healthcare industry during the last 20 years, representing for-profit, nonprofit and governmental entities. He has been on the front line of healthcare evolution and innovation, witnessing firsthand successes and failures at both the industry and business levels.

This post is the fifth in our five-part series, Navigating Life Sciences Transactions, where our team of attorneys provides essential strategies and insights for successful life sciences transactions.

Throughout this series, we’ve explored the key elements of successful life sciences transactions—from structuring collaborations and securing funding to protecting intellectual property and navigating regulatory complexities.

Yet, even when companies understand these fundamentals, transactions don’t always go as planned. In our work with biotech, medtech, digital health, and research-driven companies, we’ve seen common missteps that can slow deals down, create compliance risks, or weaken long-term business outcomes.

This post is the second in our five-part series, Navigating Life Sciences Transactions, where our team of attorneys provides essential strategies and insights for successful life sciences transactions.

What Investors Look for in Early and Late-Stage Funding Rounds and How Regulatory Compliance Impacts Valuation

For early-stage life sciences and health tech companies, raising capital is about more than demonstrating scientific promise. Investors are increasingly focused on regulatory preparedness, reimbursement strategy, and risk allocation—factors that can significantly impact valuation and long-term viability.

This post is the first in our five-part series, Navigating Life Sciences Transactions, where our team of attorneys provides essential strategies and insights for successful life sciences transactions.

AI, Medical Devices, Digital Health, and the Future of Healthcare Transactions

Innovation in life sciences isn’t just about scientific breakthroughs—it’s about making the right business decisions.

The life sciences industry is built on breakthroughs and partnerships. From early-stage biotech startups to established medtech and pharma companies, success often depends on navigating complex business transactions, securing funding, protecting intellectual property, and aligning with regulatory requirements.

At Husch Blackwell, we’ve worked alongside drug manufacturers, device companies, digital health innovators, academic medical centers, CROs

Engaging in management and investor conversations about maintaining and growing a business is critical, no matter the industry. Whether you’re discussing normal business sustainability, organic growth, or contemplating a sale, these discussions become more complex when practicing physicians are the business’s revenue generators. These conversations must be handled carefully to comply with the spirit and letter of healthcare’s strict fraud and abuse laws. To ensure these discussions are both productive and compliant, it’s essential to navigate these complex regulations effectively.

Exiting a business, whether you are a serial entrepreneur looking to move on to the next project or a healthcare provider like a physician or therapist who has nurtured your practice for decades, can be difficult. After all, corporate transactions are complex affairs that often hang on small details. That’s to say nothing of the emotions that business owners sometimes experience when stepping away from an enterprise into which they have poured their sweat and passion.

For those in the healthcare industry, the complexities only get tougher to tackle. As one of the most heavily regulated industries, healthcare embodies a level of regulatory risk—from merely annoying to existential—that most businesses don’t have to contemplate, making succession and exit plans hard to develop and harder still to execute.

As the health care industry shifts from fee-for-service to value-based arrangements, providers are facing a lot of challenges. A provider’s relationship with payers is often strained by the new business model, and a provider’s ability to collaborate with payers has never been more important.

On this episode of Value-Based Care Insights, host Daniel J. Marino

Recent conversations with associates at Husch Blackwell reminded me of my days as an associate. I recall wondering whether I was doing a good job, if more billable hours meant significantly more money, and what it would really take to be made partner. The firm had a mentor program, and associate reviews, but I still

Please join Husch Blackwell as we go virtual with our Health Law Conference. The series will include a range of important topics relevant to the healthcare industry and will be moderated by Curt Chase, leader of the firm’s Healthcare, Life Sciences and Education team; Hal Katz, American Bar Association, Health Law Section, Chair; and Tom Shorter, American Health Law Association, President-Elect Designate. The webinar programs will be offered every Thursday through November 19.

Deal activity among hospitals, physicians and health plans will continue at a swift pace into 2021. In our fifth session, hear from industry thought leaders on how the pandemic is impacting private equity and strategic investments in the healthcare space.