It’s poised to be a big year for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the healthcare industry.

Lowered inflation, the anticipation of more interest rate cuts, and the expectation that the Trump administration will ease up on antitrust regulations have created a more favorable dealmaking environment than we’ve seen since 2021’s boom, experts said.

“We do expect to see a tremendous amount more of M&A than we’ve seen in the previous years, but each subsector has a different flavor, and each subsector’s reasoning for having a boom in M&A is different,” Kristin Pothier, principal and healthcare and life sciences sector leader at accounting firm KPMG, told Healthcare Brew.

Where the action will be. One of the biggest subsectors for M&A activity this year will be pharmaceuticals, Pothier projected.

A number of big pharma companies have drugs with patents expiring in the next few years, she said. Because of that, the companies will be looking to acquire smaller players with promising drug candidates to replace that revenue.

Keep reading here.—MA

The global healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) industry is expected to grow from $27.69 billion in 2023 to $490.96 billion by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights.

But is this investment paying off?

In a survey of 121 global C-suite health system executives by the Deloitte US Center for Health Solutions—released on Jan. 29—some say yes. Over 40% (52) said generative AI had already produced “significant-to-moderate” returns on investment. Generative AI’s uses include automating processes like data entry and analyzing CT scans, MRIs, and X-rays.

Jennifer Bryan, a rural healthcare provider and president of the Mississippi State Medical Association, told Healthcare Brew that she has seen AI’s value firsthand. She said she uses Suki AI Assistant to ambiently listen to each of her patient appointments, saving her two hours daily that she would have used to type up notes.

Keep reading here.—CC

The crack and fizz of a freshly opened bottle of Mountain Dew. Matthew McConaughey wielding a fried chicken wing like a baton. Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, so decadent and oozing with chocolate that they’re driving people to risk self-immolation at the foot of a volcano.

This year’s Super Bowl Sunday was a typical junk-food bacchanal. That is, until one ad may have cast that second helping of buffalo dip in a different light.

In the third quarter of the game, the direct-to-consumer telehealth company Hims & Hers ran a PSA-style ad highlighting America’s obesity epidemic, complete with shots of jiggling bellies, spinning scales, eerie medical scans, and a message that “obesity leads to half a million deaths each year.”

“Something’s broken, and it’s not our bodies,” the ad warns viewers, before offering a solution: weight loss drugs, like semaglutide, which Hims & Hers sells in a compounded form.

Keep reading on Marketing Brew.—RB

Black mothers in the U.S. face higher mortality and mistreatment rates during childbirth. Advocates are pushing for solutions, including community support, doulas, and diversifying the medical workforce. Medicaid coverage for doula care is expanding, but more systemic changes are needed to ensure equitable maternal healthcare.