In the third quarter of 2021, medical device company M&A values reached $7.1bn, while in vitro diagnostic firms and research tools players completed M&A activity that totaled $6.7bn.

Pacific Biosciences has agreed to pay $600m upfront in cash and stock and up $200m in additional milestone payments to acquire Omniome. PacBio also announced a new private placement of common stock to raise $300m.

Illumina announced plans to acquire Grail for about $8bn in September 2020, but the US FTC says the proposed acquisition will diminish innovation in the US market for multi-cancer testing.

Emergence of the inter partes review process dramatically changed the patent dispute arena.  The decade also brought biosimilar litigation, generic price-fixing complaints, opioid lawsuits and new government investigations and antitrust actions.