In a recent op-ed for The Maryland Daily Record, Kelly Schulz, CEO of PULSE Partner Maryland Tech Council, discusses how federal policy against mergers and acquisitions (M&A) could undermine Maryland’s status as an innovation leader in the life sciences. Read the op-ed below:
Maryland’s life sciences industry is at the forefront of bringing life-saving medical advancements to market, improving the health and quality of life of patients in Maryland and across the country. Our life sciences ecosystem helped map the human genome, and is developing therapies for cancer, muscular dystrophy, infant respiratory infections and more.
But Maryland’s status as an innovation leader could be at risk due to misguided federal antitrust policies.
Maryland’s 2,700 life sciences companies have created a vibrant life sciences industry that employs more than 54,000 Marylanders and generates billions of dollars in economic activity across the state each year. Maryland’s strong workforce and investment in life-saving medical breakthroughs have distinguished our state as a leader in life sciences innovation and competition.
Mergers and acquisitions and similar partnerships are fundamental to helping these companies reach their full potential. Bringing a new drug to market is a high-stakes endeavor that can cost billions of dollars, take 10 to 15 years and has a less than 10% rate of success.
Life sciences M&A encourages an efficient allocation of funding, and enables companies of all types and sizes to do what they do best, and to partner when it makes sense on the long and risky journey to bring a new medicine to patients.
M&A is often integral for a company to connect its promising discovery with the experience and infrastructure needed to bring it to patients. In Maryland, for example, the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals by AstraZeneca in 2020 helped expand the distribution of a breakthrough treatment for a rare and life-threatening genetic blood disease to patients around the world. Further, Quest Diagnostic’s acquisition of Baltimore-based Haystack Oncology in 2023 is expanding access to Haystack’s technology for early detection of residual or recurring cancer.
Unfortunately, the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice recently adopted policy changes that restrict and discourage pro-innovation M&A and other partnerships – activities that are key to the drug discovery and development process.
For example, the FTC and DOJ’s 2023 merger guidelines include a range of presumptions that agencies can use to challenge M&A deals, absent any real evidence of negative impacts to competition or consumer harm. The result is an unclear standard of competition that creates uncertainty and risks that deter the M&A that our industry has depended on for decades.
Similarly, in November 2024, the FTC finalized changes to the Hart-Scott-Rodino premerger notification to significantly increase the information required to be reported by merging companies and dramatically increase compliance costs. As more than 80% of life sciences companies operate without a profit, these increased costs could deter many companies from pursuing pro-innovation mergers that could accelerate new treatments and cures.
Maryland’s life sciences industry is a pillar of our state’s economy. As the new administration begins outlining its vision for American innovation and antitrust policy, we encourage federal policymakers to consider the unique and fundamental role life sciences M&A plays in strengthening our economy and improving the lives of patients.
Kelly Schulz is CEO of the Maryland Tech Council, the largest technology and life sciences trade association in the state. She previously served as Maryland secretary of commerce and Maryland secretary of labor.