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Let's ask Jared Holtz, Mizuho's securities healthcare equity strategist. Jared, thank you for joining us. Are you expecting to see more M&A in the space?
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 00:09.840
Thanks so much for having me. I I am. I think this this coming year 2026 is going to be pretty similar to 2025. I think there were about 22 transactions in biotech north of 500 million. Um I think that's roughly right and and so yes, I think next year will be pretty similar.
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In any particular space? I mean, the GLP-1s have been sort of the theme of this year. Are you looking at new trends in this space?
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 00:41.520
I think it's very difficult to predict where the next deal is going to come from in terms of the therapeutic category. Obviously, this obesity situation has been, you know, so remarkable. I'm not really sure there are that many companies left to be acquired. The one that I keep
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 00:58.320
on looking at, I think a lot of investors are circling is structure therapeutics that's GPCR. They've had data recently and they seem like they could be a decent player in this industry even if they took 5% of the market if the market estimates that the that the entirety of the
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 01:16.240
GLP-1 class is going to be above 100 billion.
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What about the efforts that the White House is taking on controlling drug prices? There looks like there's going to be some arm twisting going on where drug prices are concerned. And then you have the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act insurance expiring today. Does any of
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that affect where these companies go for the next year?
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 01:42.600
Well, I think the drug pricing discussion is one of the more interesting ones in all of health care. This year has been very active in terms of the industry coming to some sort of negotiations, some sort of terms with the administration over the price of drugs, either new drugs
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 01:58.840
or existing My sense is that the government's going to walk back a little bit from drug pricing as this major issue if they believe that a lot of it has been tackled already. And if that's the case, then I think the pharmaceutical industry, large cap pharma, Lilly, Pfizer,
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 02:15.640
Merck, etc. probably feel better about how they're positioned in the market in 2026. That could allow for more more deal-making as we were talking about earlier. As far as the subsidies are concerned, I'm not quite sure how that's going to work out. You're right, they expire
Jared Holz (Health Care Equity Strategist) 02:31.440
today. There's probably There's a good chance that there's some sort of agreement made over the next couple of months, but I I don't think it's going to have a huge impact on biotech near term.