Global healthcare M&A volume is up 45% on last year’s levels. Financial News discuss the trend with the banker whose team has advised on three of this year’s top five deals in the sector .

This month's $15.4bn bid by Thermo Fisher Scientific, the laboratory equipment maker, for rival Life Technologies took global healthcare M&A volume to $47.6bn. This is 45% more than in the same time last year and the strongest annual start in two years, according to Thomson Reuters.