M&A and Other Transactions

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This is the first in our series leading up to HLTH USA 2026, where our team will share insights on the legal and business issues facing physician innovators, healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors.

Physicians have more opportunities than ever to turn their ideas into businesses. Artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies are accelerating the development of new products, digital health platforms, and care delivery models.

But a promising innovation doesn’t necessarily translate into a sustainable business that customers will adopt, investors will finance, or buyers will want to acquire.

In our work with physician entrepreneurs, healthcare companies, medical groups, health systems, and investors, we frequently see promising businesses encounter obstacles because their ownership arrangements, regulatory structures, or commercial relationships weren’t designed to support the next stage of growth.

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This is the third in a series of blog posts focused on AI and clinical trials/research space, highlighting topics to be discussed at the upcoming BIO International convention on June 22-25, 2026.

AI is transforming drug discovery faster than deal structures can adapt. Traditional licensing frameworks were built for linear innovation: researcher invents, institution owns, licensee commercializes. AI shatters that model by distributing inventive contributions across algorithms, datasets, and human researchers in ways that make ownership genuinely ambiguous. For business development teams, tech transfer offices, early-stage biotech CEOs, and investors, these ambiguities surface during due diligence, valuation negotiations, or post-acquisition integration as deal-killers.

After our recent presentation, Physician Owner Mindset, Compliance Guardrails: Growth Without the Gotchas, at the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives on April 21, we wanted to share some practical insights on incentive design, deal structure, and how these issues surface in transactions and enforcement—key topics we touched on in our discussion. We think you will find these articles beneficial in navigating the ever-changing landscape you face (alternate: the industry faces) today.

Blurred image of business people walking in modern office with sunlight.

This is the sixth and final installment in a six-part series on incentive design, deal structure, and how these issues surface in transactions and enforcement. Other relevant topics will be discussed in our upcoming presentation, Physician Owner Mindset, Compliance Guardrails: Growth Without the Gotchas, to be given at the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives on Tuesday, April 21.

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This is the fifth in a six-part series on incentive design, deal structure, and how these issues surface in transactions and enforcement. Other relevant topics will be discussed in our upcoming presentation, Physician Owner Mindset, Compliance Guardrails: Growth Without the Gotchas, to be given at the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives on Tuesday, April…

Earlier this month, Judge Rakoff of the Southern District of New York issued a first-of-its-kind ruling in United States v. Heppner. The case involved a criminal defendant, Heppner, who used a public generative AI platform (Claude) to “prepare reports that outlined his defense strategy (what he might argue with respect to the facts and the law that [his attorneys] anticipated that the government might be charging”). Although the defendant prepared the documents on his own, he later shared them with his attorneys. Heppner argued that these AI-generated documents should be protected by attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine.

This is the first in a six-part series on incentive design, deal structure, and how these issues surface in transactions and enforcement. Other relevant topics will be discussed in our upcoming presentation, Physician Owner Mindset, Compliance Guardrails: Growth Without the Gotchas, to be given at the American Alliance of Orthopaedic Executives on Tuesday, April 21.

Blog SeriesConference Post (1)

This is the fourth in a series of articles designed to provide SXSW and LSI USA ’26 attendees and other MedTech professionals with practical considerations for efficiently executing mission-critical life science deals.

Many MedTech companies begin with one important relationship.

A health system agrees to test the product.
A strategic customer agrees to move first.
A commercial partner helps validate the market.

That is often how the first traction happens.

Blog SeriesConference Post (1)

This is the second in a series of articles designed to provide SXSW and LSI USA ’26 attendees and other MedTech professionals with practical considerations for efficiently executing mission-critical life science deals.

Collaborations often start with a simple premise: build something together, share the risk, and create value.

The complexity shows up later when investors or buyers ask who actually owns the platform.

In co-development structures involving devices and software, ownership and control are rarely binary. They are defined by layered licensing arrangements, regulatory allocations, manufacturing dependencies, and IP assignments that were often negotiated quickly to get a deal done.

Blog SeriesConference Post (1)

This is the first in a series of articles designed to provide SXSW and LSI USA ’26 attendees and other MedTech professionals with practical considerations for efficiently executing mission-critical life science deals.