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 training course will strengthen your capability to deliver compliant, value-focused transactions from strategy through to integration.
This advanced course 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 course 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 training 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 training 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.
CPD Hours: 18
Course Content
- Day 1
- Module 1: Structures, Valuation & IFRS Overlays
- Orientation and Diagnostics
- Pharma deal structures and when to use them
- Deal thesis and valuation in pharma
- Module 2: Clearance essentials and governance
- Global merger control essentials
- UK public M&A and national security
- Partnerships that work
- Day 2
- Module 3: Regulatory, quality, supply chain and data
- Regulatory diligence and transfers
- Manufacturing, serialisation & supply chain
- Data, privacy and information separation
- Module 4: ABAC, sanctions and documentation
- ABAC, transparency and interactions with HCP/HCOs
- Sanctions and export controls in cross-border deals
- Documentation essentials
- Day 3
- Module 5: Approvals, accounting and integration
- Clearance strategy and multi-agency sequencing
- Accounting, reporting and tax in the first 180 days
- Integration planning: day 1 to day 100
- Module 6: Negotiation and simulation
- Negotiation Lab: SPA/JV Term Sheet
- Communications, MAR and disclosure (public deals)
- Capstone simulation
- 30/60/90-day action plan and ownership
Speakers
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.
