Health Care Roundup:
Market Talk
(January 2026) 

1. Pfizer sees room in the obesity market to become a major player following the pharmaceutical company’s acquisition of Metsera, CEO Albert Bourla says at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. Though Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk remain the leading companies in the GLP-1 market, the cash market for the drugs is big enough to support another entrant, he says. When doing the business case for the Metsera acquisition, “we saw how big the cash market is for this indication, which in our projections, we didn’t have that.” He likened obesity drugs to the launch of Viagra, when Pfizer was surprised by the amount of consumers willing to pay out of pocket for the treatment. “Market will be big,” he says. “You need differentiated products, you need significant marketing capabilities because that’s a consumer-driven market.” 

2. Big pharmaceutical companies could have nearly half a trillion dollars in available cash to spend on mergers and acquisitions through to 2030, according to analysts at Berenberg. In 2026 alone, big pharma companies have an estimated $55 billion of cash available for dealmaking, and Berenberg forecasts at $470 billion their unallocated cash generation in the period through 2030, the analysts say. “Companies with the most cash at their disposal for deals are Eli Lilly, Merck & Co, Roche and AbbVie,” they add. Pharma dealmaking was slow last year due to political uncertainty, but there was an acceleration toward the end of the year, Berenberg says. 

3. China’s biopharmaceutical companies are set for rapid earnings growth from 2026, driven by greater globalization and improving operating efficiency, UOB Kay Hian analysts Carol Dou and Sunny Chen say in a note. They expect margin expansion from drug innovators, supported by their licensing income, better cost structures and overseas growth, and they like BeOne Medicines, Innovent and Hansoh Pharma in that segment. Contract research, development and manufacturing organizations should see stronger earnings and rising demand in 2026, with WuXi AppTec and WuXi Bio favored. Internet healthcare leaders with stable business models and AI adoption are also expected to deliver solid compound annual earnings growth through 2027, with Ali Health preferred for its synergies with Alibaba and attractive valuation. UOB KH maintains an overweight call on China’s healthcare sector. 

4. The Thai healthcare sector’s 2026 earnings growth is likely to be modest, Maybank Securities (Thailand)’s Nontapat Sahakitpinyo writes in a research report. A weak economy is expected to keep domestic patient growth sluggish. Patients may choose public hospitals over private hospitals due to affordability considerations. Meanwhile, tensions between Thailand and Cambodia began to affect patient flows from last June. 1H revenue from Cambodian patients is likely to remain down by about 70%-80% on year, before gradually recovering in 2H. This is due to factors including a low base, the analyst says. 

5. Big European pharmaceutical stocks have rallied in recent weeks, which makes them vulnerable should companies’ 2026 guidance disappoint, Bank of America analysts say in a note. The likely outlooks from AstraZeneca and Novartis look safe relative to consensus expectations, Bank of America says. Meanwhile, there could be some risk that the outlooks issued by GSK, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi fall short of forecasts, according to Bank of America. For Roche, Bank of America expects guidance of sales growth in the mid-single-digit percentage range excluding currency movements and earnings per share growth of high single digits, broadly in line with consensus, but sees room for a more cautious view.