Life Sciences Round Up – Q2 2026

Q2 2026 brought no shortage of activity to the life sciences sector. Here are the top issues and trends we've been tracking.

US/China Developments

After five years of exponential growth in China in-licensing deals, the US government has adopted a carrot-and-stick approach to incentivize US pharma companies to focus back on US-developed assets—increasing regulatory complexity around transactions with Chinese biotechs (including the introduction of BINSA), while reducing regulatory complexity around early-stage clinical trials (Operation TrialBlazer). In response, the Chinese government amended its outbound investment rules to limit cross-border transfer of life sciences platform technologies. 

None of the changes are fully effective (or understood), as both sides continue to work out the details of their various legislative and regulatory proposals. However, in our view, the mere fact of such governmental focus has had a chilling effect on deals; we are seeing far fewer US companies entering into China in-licenses as we did in the last 18 months.

Information Disclosure Obligations

The SEC’s evolving focus on informational advantages and the rise of prediction markets is making it much harder for publicly traded companies to assess the SEC's likely view of evolving information, including whether it may warrant disclosure to the market or raise enforcement concerns, particularly in the life sciences sector. Even preliminary or probabilistic insights, such as patient-level clinical outcomes, limited regulatory feedback, or potential timing shifts, that may alter how an investor assesses the probability of an outcome (e.g., regulatory approval) may attract SEC scrutiny and, depending on the circumstances, fall within the scope of SEC enforcement. 

Companies will need to consider, from both a disclosure and an enforcement perspective, how early signals are generated, interpreted, and communicated throughout the information lifecycle; control how informal insights flow internally and externally; and ensure external messaging and disclosures closely align with internal understandings. More broadly, companies may need to treat these issues as matters of information governance, with controls designed to manage informational advantages and mitigate both disclosure and enforcement risk.

M&A Trends in Q2 2026

M&A activity in Q2 was robust and followed the trends seen in Q1, as buyers prioritized acquisitions of companies with lead programs in late-stage clinical development or on the market. Other trends observed this quarter include therapeutic specialization—oncology, neurologic, and metabolic disease were particular areas of focus—and significant deal valuations, with more than 30 announced M&A deals that involved values of $1 billion or greater.

Fostering New Hubs in Asia

Life sciences companies are diversifying operations and manufacturing across alternative Asian hubs to build geopolitical supply chain resilience—and, perhaps, to avoid geopolitical tensions with China. We expect these markets to continue ramping up their capabilities to bolster domestic and cross-border dealings.

• South Korea: Support for entry into global markets continues as companies remain focused on expansion.
• Japan: Companies continue to announce plans for domestic developments as well as cross-border frameworks to strengthen research in the life sciences and healthcare fields.
• India: Companies’ expanding CDMO capabilities are reportedly absorbing manufacturing demand from life sciences companies looking to broaden supply chains. 

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Many thanks to the Freshfields lawyers who contributed to this piece.

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