Health care-focused private-equity firms bet big on biopharmaceutical deals in 2019, despite the regulatory scrutiny the sector has faced in recent years.

“Private equity has long been interested and invested in the ‘picks and shovels’ that fuel the biopharma industry, such as clinical research services, pharma IT and life science tools,” said Nirad Jain, a partner with Bain & Company who co-leads the firm's global health-care private-equity and corporate mergers-and-acquisitions practice.

He added that there has been an increased interest from private equity in biopharmaceutical products, services and health-care information technology supporting research-and-development and commercialization efforts.