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Healthcare deals I’d like to see in 2016: Pfizer buys Teladoc, Theranos gets sold, Apple makes a deal

Other deals I'd like to see in place: Pfizer buying Teladoc, and Walgreens grabbing 23andMe.

This article is part of an end-of-the-year series in which select MedCity News staff members share their healthcare M&A wish list for 2016.

Mergers and acquisitions in the life sciences were rampant this past year – highlighted, of course, in that monster of a buyout between Allergan and Pfizer. We have every reason to believe that this M&A trend will continue well into 2016.

But while we can undoubtedly expect big pharma to acquire therapeutics startups, and medical device giants to gobble medical device peons, we have a flair for the unexpected. So here’s a list of some unconventional – but potentially profitable – M&A activity in the life sciences (and beyond).

Verily acquires Theranos

Think that $9 billion valuation of Theranos still holds? Unlikely. The technology at Theranos is shaking out as shaky – there’s little credibility left in Elizabeth Holmes’ unicorn. But at core, she holds a highly compelling idea – so why not tap the team at Google for their exceptional analytical capabilities?

Verily is building up very powerful life sciences connections, and any partnership it makes moving forward is worth watching. If it managed to infuse support into a sinking Theranos, perhaps there could be hope for this potentially revolutionary technology.

Walgreens acquires 23andMe

Walgreens is becoming a master of the direct-to-consumer healthcare model – with its telemedicine offerings, its dabblings with Theranos, and its wellness centers that embrace new models of efficiency. So why not scale that back a couple notches, and start getting to know the patient on an entirely new, and far more intimate level? Get them at the DNA?

23andMe is already offering carrier screening tools and, once the FDA gives it the go-ahead, data that predicts among patients their likelihood to get diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.

23andMe is already outsourcing its data – gathered from spit swabs and user-answered questions – to the pharmaceutical players. Why not use that data to inform consumer health? Walgreens could make a mint from those kinds of analytics.

AbbVie acquires BionPharma

AbbVie’s revenues from Humira are projected to get gutted in the next few years as the immunosuppressant goes off-patent. So, why not fight fire with fire? Bionpharma, a New Jersey-based spinout of Indian generics maker Ranbaxy, is stealthily raising a fair amount of capital to take on the U.S. generics market. Why not acquire a generics maker, and start selling cheaper versions of other companies’ drugs?

Or, better yet – AbbVie could acquire Oncobiologics, a biosimilar startup that’s developing its own alternative to Humira. AbbVie could scoop up the rest of Oncobiologics’ pipeline, such as its Avastin biosimilar, and profit from ripping off its big pharma competitors. With the marketing firepower of a big pharma company, it could certain outpace production and sales of its smaller fry biosimilar competitors. Right?

Pfizer acquires Teladoc

With that Allergan merger, Pfizer’s easily the largest pharma in existence. It may be a safe bet that this new behemoth may cool it on biopharma acquisitions in the near future, as it consolidates and trims its holdings. But…

Why not telemedicine? With the Teva investment in American Well, we’re seeing pharma companies begin to take interest in remote medication monitoring and telehealth. The applications of these kinds of pharma-telemedicine merges are compelling: It could flip the clinical trial process on its head, for instance, allowing better communication between patients and doctors.

Pfizer could have a hard time keeping all its assets in line, now that its global reach has expanded even farther. Why not tap into a telemedicine asset?

But why Teladoc? Well, it has a powerful network of physicians around the country that could connect with patients – that is, potential customers – the world over. How about commercial breaks in between patient sessions? Pfizer emblems in the bottom of video consult screens? The possibilities are endless.

Apple ResearchKit acquires Next Big Sound

Next Big Sound offers a powerful predictive analytics platform for… the music biz. But it’s got such compelling data behind it that you can’t help but wonder what uses it could have in, say, the healthcare industry.

Next Big Sound can data mine deep enough to predict who the next big pop star is – and has managed to do so successfully several times over. It was acquired by Pandora earlier this year. However, the streaming internet radio player isn’t faring so well in the stock market, and it may be time for it to divest some assets.

Apple could use Next Big Sound for iTunes, sure – that would be the obvious rationale for such an acquisition. But why not peel apart this kind of an asset, and use it for ResearchKit? Use the predictive analytics software to gauge the next big disease area, the next blockbuster pharmaceutical, or the next health condition a patient may face?

Undoubtedly Apple’s deep in the land of predictive analytics, but Next Big Sound still offers something special.

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