From HEOR Trends To Deal Appetite: What Buyers Are Really Looking For
Highlights:
Buyers are prioritising scalable, “evidence-native” HEOR platforms over personality-led advisory models.
AI capability now attracts scrutiny - Governance and explainability are non-negotiable in diligence.
Value-based healthcare is raising the bar from modelling outcomes to operational delivery.
Pricing pressure is driving demand for contracting and market access infrastructure.
Expanding HTA frameworks favour businesses that can standardise and translate value across markets.
ISPOR’s latest HEOR trends report places artificial intelligence, real-world evidence, value-based healthcare and pricing pressure firmly at the top of the sector’s agenda.
Those priorities do more than shape operational focus within HEOR. In live M&A processes across pharma services, they tend to surface during diligence. They influence what acquirers scrutinise, where they see integration risk, and where they are prepared to pay a premium.
After a difficult 2023 and 2024 across pharma services, trading stabilised through 2025. Stronger performance typically translates into increased deal activity. In that context, how current HEOR priorities intersect with acquisition appetite becomes increasingly material.
Below, we consider five themes emerging from the latest HEOR agenda and what they mean through an M&A lens - not as a recap of trends, but as a view on what buyers are really looking for.
Theme 1: “Evidence-native” beats “evidence-later”
RWE continues to rise up the HEOR agenda, with increasing emphasis on data quality, transparency, reproducibility and structured protocol development.
Regulators are expanding their use of RWE in decision-making, and frameworks around study design and reporting are becoming more formalised. Evidence generation is expected to be systematic, transparent and defensible - not retrospective or improvised.
Why it matters for buyers
In M&A terms, this shifts the focus from capability to industrialisation.
Buyers are increasingly differentiating between businesses that “do HEOR work” and those that operate with repeatable methodologies, scalable data infrastructure and clear data rights.
During diligence, this distinction becomes visible in scrutiny around:
Data provenance and ownership
Reproducibility of outputs
Governance around real-world data use
Reliance on individual expertise versus institutional process
Firms that can demonstrate structured, transparent and scalable RWE generation reduce integration risk and align more naturally with platform strategies.
Being Rewarded: RWE-enabled platforms, registry-backed businesses and HEOR firms with strong, documented methodologies.
Being Discounted: Opaque, personality-led advisory models or point-solution analytics firms with weak data rights or limited repeatability.
From a valuation perspective, the premium increasingly sits with businesses that resemble infrastructure rather than consultancy.
Theme 2: AI is moving from “productivity tool” to regulated capability
AI has moved from being an efficiency enhancer to a core capability within HEOR. AI is now embedded in literature review processes, dataset structuring and elements of modelling.
At the same time, expectations around governance, oversight and explainability are rising. The conversation has shifted from whether AI can accelerate workflows to how it’s controlled, validated and monitored.
Why it matters for buyers
While AI-enabled capability can improve scalability and operating leverage, it also introduces new risk. Buyers are increasingly probing:
AI governance policies and oversight frameworks
Model validation and audit trails
Data privacy and compliance controls
Traceability and reproducibility of outputs
Reliance on third-party tools versus proprietary systems
Weak governance can create valuation pressure or complicate integration. As AI becomes increasingly used in pricing, reimbursement and access decisions, buyers are treating AI posture in a similar way to cybersecurity: non-negotiable.
Being Rewarded: AI-enabled HEOR tools and service firms with governance built in - clear documentation, validation protocols and human oversight.
Being Discounted: Black-box models positioned as “magic” solutions, particularly where outputs influence pricing or reimbursement without defensible controls.
In valuation terms, AI capability without proper governance represents risk rather than an upside.
Theme 3: Value-based healthcare is forcing operational proof
Value-based healthcare (VBHC) has moved into the mainstream. Health systems under financial pressure are shifting incentives toward outcomes rather than volume, positioning HEOR as central to quantifying and evidencing value.
The direction of travel is towards measurable, accountable outcomes. It’s increasingly no longer enough to model value theoretically; stakeholders expect the ability to track and report outcomes.
Why it matters for buyers
Outcomes-linked models raise the bar. Buyers are looking beyond analytical capability and testing whether a target can support real-world execution. This often surfaces in diligence around:
Interoperability with provider and payer systems
Data integration across workflows
Ongoing outcomes tracking capability
Contract execution infrastructure
Integration risk can surface, not because analysis is flawed, but because outcomes cannot be tracked or contracts cannot be operationalised post-close. Businesses that bridge evidence and execution reduce that risk.
Being Rewarded: Firms offering provider enablement, outcomes measurement and workflow enablement that integrates into VBHC contracts.
Being Discounted: Businesses with strong modelling capability but limited ability to operationalise or embed outcomes frameworks.
Platforms that can prove and deliver measurable outcomes tend to command stronger multiples.
Theme 4: Pricing pressure is accelerating creative contracting
Drug pricing remains a structural theme across healthcare markets, with affordability pressures and increased government involvement driving more complex reimbursement models.
Risk-sharing agreements, outcomes-based pricing and alternative contracting structures are becoming more common in selected markets. Transparency expectations are also increasing.
Why it matters for buyers
In M&A terms, pricing pressure changes the profile of attractive assets.
As pricing models become more complex, demand rises for infrastructure that enables execution. Buyers are assessing:
Contracting and revenue management capability
Outcomes tracking linked to pricing agreements
Forecasting accuracy under alternative payment models
Support services that reduce patient abandonment and improve adherence (particularly in the US)
This shifts appetite towards bundled capabilities that combine data, contracting expertise and operational support.
Being Rewarded: Market access technology platforms, contracting enablement tools and service providers that make value-based pricing executable.
Being Discounted: Businesses reliant on broad pricing power narratives without evidence or contracting readiness.
Capability that supports revenue durability under pricing pressure carries strategic value.
Theme 5: HTA collaboration and broader value measurement are expanding the goalposts
HTA frameworks are evolving, with greater effort towards cross-country collaboration and broader definitions of value. In selected markets, measurement is extending beyond traditional clinical endpoints toward equity, productivity and wider societal impact.
This increases the complexity of global market access and value narratives.
Why it matters for buyers
Expanding HTA expectations increase demand for scalable intelligence and structured evidence planning, synthesis, and localisation. Buyers are evaluating:
Standardised approaches and modular evidence that can be localised
Ability to adapt value narratives across geographies
Structured evidence synthesis frameworks
Advisory capability that integrates clinical, economic and societal considerations
As value definitions widen, businesses able to navigate complexity across markets become more attractive platform assets.
Being Rewarded: Global market access advisory firms and evidence platforms capable of standardising and translating value across jurisdictions.
Being Discounted: Narrowly framed value propositions that struggle to adapt across markets or stakeholder expectations.
Scalable frameworks that travel across geographies support consolidation and platform-building strategies.
A consistent shift in what buyers reward
When we look across evidence generation, AI, value-based healthcare, pricing and HTA evolution, there is a consistent pattern emerging. Buyers are rewarding operational maturity, governance and scalability. They are discounting opacity, personality-led delivery models and capability that cannot withstand scrutiny.
For HEOR businesses, industry priorities don’t sit in isolation. They shape how clients evaluate services and how acquirers evaluate businesses.
As deal activity strengthens, the distinction between capability and institutionalised, scalable capability becomes commercially significant. The businesses that command a premium are those that can demonstrate repeatable processes, defensible governance and the ability to operate at scale within increasingly complex healthcare environments.
For a confidential discussion about how your business may be assessed in the current market, contact Tura’s Healthcare & Life Sciences advisory team.
