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Falconbury

Mergers & Acquisitions and Partnerships in the Pharmaceutical Sector Training Course

Practical 3-day course focussing on the skills to design, value, negotiate and execute pharmaceutical deals, covering structures, regulatory and antitrust workstreams, compliance, IFRS impacts, integration and latest UK/global transaction requirements

24-26 June 2026
+ 25-27 November 2026 »

from £1299

Need help?  Enrol/reserve

Course overview

Build your expertise to structure and execute high-stakes pharmaceutical deals with confidence while mastering the complex cross-border requirements driving modern M&A and licensing in the pharma sector. This highly practical course will strengthen your capability to deliver compliant, value-focused transactions from strategy through to integration.

This advanced three-day programme is designed for leaders and specialists who need to navigate the fast-moving regulatory, commercial and compliance landscape governing pharma M&A, licensing and partnership execution.

As deal structures grow more complex and global scrutiny intensifies, organisations need teams capable of designing transactions that are strategically sound, value-accretive and compliant from diligence through post-close integration. This training delivers that capability through immersive, case-driven learning built around real datasets, model templates and negotiation simulations.

Across three full days, participants work through the complete deal lifecycle - from strategic design and valuation to regulatory approvals, integration planning and compliance embedding. Modules include deal structuring, rNPV-driven asset valuation, regulatory and antitrust execution, MAH/PV transfer mechanics, financial reporting impacts, and the latest UK and global risk frameworks (NSI Act, CMA/EU/US merger control, sanctions, ABAC, GDPR/UK GDPR). Practical workshops and role-plays apply each concept using pharmaceutical examples and contemporary market data.

Delegates will gain a deeper strategic understanding of pharma transactions and the confidence to manage high-risk, cross-functional deal processes. They will gain practical tools for diligence, valuation, integration planning and compliance assessment - sharpening decision-making skills and reducing execution risk.

The practical format of the course will enable participants to return to their roles better equipped to design, negotiate and deliver successful transactions in a highly regulated and competitive sector.

During this highly interactive course, the expert trainer uses a balanced mix of:

  • Case-led workshops: Real-world transactions drawn from leading pharma M&A cases
  • Financial & operational modelling: Hands-on exercises in valuation, synergy mapping, and IFRS-based purchase accounting (PPA)
  • Negotiation exercises: Participants negotiate SPA and JV term sheets covering warranties, ABAC, regulatory, and PV covenants
  • Compliance deep dives: Structured sessions linking finance and governance to legal frameworks and disclosure requirements
  • Capstone simulation: A team-based scenario integrating regulatory clearances, ABPI/EFPIA transparency, DSCSA/FMD readiness, and integration governance.

Delegates will benefit from a toolkit for ongoing reference, including:

  • Financial models: rNPV valuation, synergy/operating model, PPA/CGU template, and regulatory approvals Gantt
  • Checklists: MAH transfer & PV continuity, DSCSA/FMD readiness, ABAC/FCPA diligence, sanctions screening, GDPR/UK GDPR protocols
  • Clauses library: Ready-to-adapt SPA/JV covenants for regulatory, PV/quality, sanctions, ABAC, and data protection
  • Playbooks: CMA/EUMR/HSR filing guide, NSI/CFIUS templates, ABPI/EFPIA disclosure workflows
  • Reference compass: Summaries of Takeover Code, CMA rules, IFRS 3/IAS 36/38, ABPI Code 2024, FCPA Resource Guide, and OECD BEPS updates.

 

This training course is part of our series of Corporate Strategy Training Courses covering the essential skills and best practices for all Company Directors and Company Secretaries, as well as business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Benefits of attending

By attending this course, you will:

  • Understand how to select appropriate deal structures - asset/share deals, carve-outs, licences, JVs - based on risk, regulatory complexity and value creation
  • Learn how to map and manage an end-to-end M&A lifecycle, assigning clear accountabilities across strategy, diligence, closing and integration
  • Build a pharma-specific valuation and synergy case using rNPV, LOE/8+2+1 modelling, PV/GVP cost drivers, serialisation requirements and tax considerations
  • Grasp how to run regulatory, antitrust, FDI, and public-company workstreams aligned with the UK Takeover Code, NSI Act, CMA/EU/US merger control, HSR and CFIUS
  • Execute MAH transfers, QPPV/PSMF changes, PV agreements, variations, serialisation readiness, and other sector-specific regulatory transitions
  • Integrate compliance frameworks into deal planning, including ABPI/EFPIA, the UK Bribery Act, US FCPA/AKS/Open Payments, sanctions/exports, and data protection rules
  • Get to grips with applying relevant financial reporting standards - IFRS 3, IAS 36, IAS 38 - and understand how Pillar Two tax rules affect deal design and post-close performance

Who should attend?

This course has been designed for senior and mid-level professionals in the pharmaceutical industry involved in deal-making, commercial strategy and regulatory or financial oversight, including:

  • Business unit managers
  • Commercial & market access managers
  • Business development managers
  • Licensing managers
  • Regulatory affairs and quality assurance professionals
  • Pharmacovigilance leaders
  • Technical operations managers
  • Finance business partners and directors
  • Legal & compliance managers involved in deal-making or partnership governance
  • In-house and private practice lawyers
  • Board members and directors

Essentially, anyone responsible for designing, negotiating, executing, or integrating pharmaceutical transactions, including M&A, licensing, joint ventures, and strategic collaborations, will benefit from this programme.

Enrol/reserve

This course will cover:

Module 1: Structures, Valuation & IFRS Overlays

Orientation and Diagnostics

  • Heat-map of prior deal exposure; identify priority risks (PV, MA transfers, HSR/NSI, ABAC)

Pharma deal structures and when to use them

  • Share vs asset deals, spin-outs/carve-outs; licence, co-dev/co-promo, JV, options/CVRs
  • Exclusivities (8+2+1), orphan/paediatric extensions and how they shape value/risk transfer (SPS)
  • Exercise: Structure a co-dev + regional licence with milestones and MAC/termination protections

Deal thesis and valuation in pharma

  • rNPV for assets by phase; success probabilities; LOE cliffs; PV and GxP compliance cost curves
  • IFRS overlays: recognising identifiable intangibles vs goodwill (IFRS 3), useful lives (IAS 38), impairment triggers (IAS 36)
  • Exercise (Model): Build a pipeline rNPV with sensitivity to access/pricing

Module 2: Clearance essentials and governance

Global merger control essentials

  • UK CMA process (EA02), Phase 1/2; EU Merger Regulation (Form CO); US HSR thresholds/fees (2025)
  • Snapshot: China SAMR, India CCI (deal value threshold/SBOI), Brazil CADE timelines
  • Exercise: Multi-jurisdiction filing map and timetable for a cross-border acquisition

UK public M&A and national security

  • UK Takeover Code principles, scope, key timetable/announcements
  • UK National Security & Investment Act - mandatory sectors, call-in power, notifications
  • Exercise: Draft a Heads of Terms with NSI conditions precedent

Partnerships that work

  • Governance of JVs and alliances (steerco, decision rights, audit, IP, PV & quality agreements)
  • Case clinic: Why alliances fail (mis-aligned value drivers, weak PV/QMS linkages)

Module 3: Regulatory, quality, supply chain and data

Regulatory diligence and transfers

  • MAH transfer mechanics (MHRA/EMA), change-of-ownership packs, variations
  • PV system readiness - QPPV continuity, PSMF updates, safety database migration, SDEAs
  • Exercise (Checklist Build): MAH transfer and PV continuity plan for Day 1/Day 100

Manufacturing, serialisation & supply chain

  • EU FMD safety features; U.S. DSCSA interoperable traceability
  • Tech-ops diligence: QMS, data integrity, deviation trends; cost & CapEx implications
  • Exercise: Quantify inventory/write-off risk from a DSCSA/FMD gap

Data, privacy and information separation

  • UK GDPR/GDPR principles for diligence rooms, special category health data; clean team protocols
  • Integration of RWD/RWE assets

Module 4: ABAC, sanctions and documentation

ABAC, transparency and interactions with HCP/HCOs

  • UK Bribery Act - “adequate procedures” (6 principles); third-party due diligence
  • US FCPA - M&A safe-harbour expectations; integration timelines
  • ABPI 2024 Code / Disclosure UK timelines; EFPIA Code (2025); ToV disclosure expectations
  • Exercise (Controls Lab): Design a ToV capture & disclosure control for an acquired affiliate

Sanctions and export controls in cross-border deals

  • UK OFSI financial sanctions framework; U.S. OFAC compliance framework
  • Screening counterparties/products; red-flag escalation and SPA clauses
  • Exercise: Sanctions screening flow and reps/warranties schedule

Documentation essentials

  • SPA/JV clauses for pharma: regulatory covenants, PV agreement conditions precedent, serialisation readiness, transitional services, earn-outs/CVRs

Module 5: Approvals, accounting and integration

Clearance strategy and multi-agency sequencing

  • EU Form CO vs simplified; U.S. HSR and second request; practical timing with 2023 DOJ/FTC Merger Guidelines
  • FDI reviews: CFIUS scope and triggers; UK NSI notifications
  • Emerging markets scan: SAMR (China), CCI (India DVT/SBOI), CADE (Brazil) process cues
  • Exercise: Build an integrated approvals Gantt with long-stop dates & CPs

Accounting, reporting and tax in the first 180 days

  • IFRS 3 purchase accounting (PPA), identifiable intangibles, contingent consideration, IPR&D
  • IAS 36 goodwill CGUs; IAS 38 R&D capitalisation boundaries
  • Pillar Two overview and signals for footprint/design
  • Exercise: Mini-PPA with CGU mapping for a specialty pharma target

Integration planning: day 1 to day 100

  • Standing up the PV system; QMS/quality release; regulatory & artwork change control; serialisation repositories; data migration; TSA governance

Module 6: Negotiation and simulation

Negotiation Lab: SPA/JV Term Sheet

  • Teams negotiate reps/warranties, indemnities, risk-sharing (milestones/CVRs), antitrust/FDI covenants, sanctions/ABAC clauses, PV/quality undertakings
  • Debrief: what Legal, QA/PV, RA, Finance each need in “must-have” schedules

Communications, MAR and disclosure (public deals)

  • UK Takeover regime disclosures and announcements; inside information and market-abuse risks

Capstone simulation

  • Cross-border acquisition facing: CMA/EUMR, NSI call-in, DSCSA dependency, ABPI/EFPIA ToV harmonisation, PPA for IPR&D
  • Teams produce: approvals plan, D1 controls, synergy tracker, and risk register

30/60/90-day action plan and ownership

Enrol/reserve

Gazi Arif

Gazi Arif is a consultant and corporate trainer and economist with over 15 years’ experience designing and delivering executive education for global organisations across finance, strategy, leadership and risk management. His programmes combine analytical rigour with actionable tools, enabling leaders to make faster, smarter, and ROI-driven business decisions.

He has worked across many industries including finance, healthcare, energy, law, and professional services. Having trained professionals from the NHS, DWP, ARAMCO and the European Central
Bank, amongst others, Gazi Arif is renowned for his interactive, case-based teaching style and his ability to translate complex financial and economic concepts into clear, results-oriented insights. 

He holds a PhD in Economics and is a member of the Chartered Institute for Securities
& Investment (CISI), a member of the Royal Economic Society (UK) and a Fellow of the HigherEducation Academy (FHEA). His teaching style bridges academia and industry, helping organisations build financial fluency, leadership capability and strategic agility in a changing global economy.

His selected publications & media include “Why Businesses Must Take Corporate Digital Responsibility” – Raconteur Magazine (2021), book chapter: “Constraints in Bank Interest Rates in DSGE Models” - Pilbeam (2021), and reviewer for the Journal of Banking and Finance and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance.

More details

NEW higher discounts for multiple bookings - bring your colleagues to make your training budget go further:

  • 30% off the 2nd delegate*
  • 40% off the 3rd delegate*
  • 50% off the 4th delegate*

Please contact us for pricing if you are interested in booking 5 or more delegates

24-26 June 2026

Live online

09:00-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+01)
10:00-18:00 Paris (UTC+02)
04:00-12:00 New York (UTC-04)
Course code 16889

  • GBP 1,299 1,599
  • EUR 1,819 2,239
  • USD 2,091 2,559

Until 20 May

View basket 

 
Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

25-27 November 2026

Live online

09:00-17:00 UK (London) (UTC+00)
10:00-18:00 Paris (UTC+01)
04:00-12:00 New York (UTC-05)
Course code 16890

  • GBP 1,299 1,599
  • EUR 1,819 2,239
  • USD 2,091 2,559

Until 21 Oct

View basket 

 
Not ready to book yet?

for 7 days, no obligation

* Early booking discounts may not be combined with other discounts or offers. As such, the discounts for 2nd/3rd/4th delegates are based on the full price; and apply only when booking multiple delegates on the same date.

Run Mergers & Acquisitions and Partnerships in the Pharmaceutical Sector Live online for your team

3 days

Typical duration

Pricing from:

  • GBP 1,150
  • Per attendee, based on 10 attendees
  • Course tailored to your requirements
  • At your choice of location, or online

 

We can customise this course to your requirements and deliver it on an in-house basis for any number of your staff or colleagues.

Contact our in-house training experts Aleksandra Beer and Yesim Nurko to discuss your requirements:

Multiple colleagues? See above for details of our discounts for 2, 3, or 4 delegates. For more, talk to one of our training experts to discuss how to:

Run this course conveniently and cost-effectively in-house for your staff and colleagues

Aleksandra Beer

Aleksandra
BEER

Training expert

Yesim Nurko

Yesim
NURKO

Training expert

Yesim Nurko

Harry
ALTAMONT

Training expert

+44 (0)20 7749 4749

inhouse@ipiacademy.com