Associate - Healthcare - Investment Banking - London

Associate - Healthcare - Investment Banking - London, posted 21 April 2026 on Moelis & Company's Experienced Hires board. The body of the page headlines the role differently - 'Associate - Life Sciences - London' - and says: 'We are currently seeking an experienced Associate to join our Healthcare Life Sciences financial advisory practice in London.' Moelis describes its Associates as expected to assume significant levels of responsibility requiring intellectual curiosity, leadership and analytical aptitude, with a day-to-day of financial analysis and modelling, managing a team, preparing client presentations and interacting with senior bankers and clients, and 'a sophisticated level of interpersonal skill' required. Source

The title says Healthcare and the body says Life Sciences, and the difference is not cosmetic. Healthcare as a coverage label stretches across pharma, medtech, providers, services and tools; Life Sciences is the drug-and-science end of it. The requirements settle which one this is - they ask for 'prior experience in the Life Sciences space' specifically - so read the narrower label as the real one and pitch yourself accordingly. If your deals were hospital groups or healthcare services roll-ups rather than pharma or biotech, you are answering the title rather than the job.

The rest of the title is straightforward. 'Investment Banking' here means advisory - the firm describes itself as advising on mergers and acquisitions, recapitalisations and restructurings and capital markets transactions, not managing money. 'Associate' is the band above analyst, and the posting spells out what the band means at this firm: managing a team as well as building the analysis. 'London' is the office, one of 23 locations the firm lists.

The team is Moelis & Company's Healthcare Life Sciences financial advisory practice in London, and the page's own headline for the seat is 'Associate - Life Sciences - London'. The stated responsibilities: in-depth quantitative financial analysis relating to business, industry and economic forecasting; identifying emerging market trends and regulatory changes within the investment and advisory domains and developing strategies to secure investment opportunities and expand the firm's presence; constructing financial models, company valuations and M&A transaction comparisons based on research and client analysis; interpreting data on price, yield, stability and future trends in investment risks; assisting with offering memoranda, transaction documentation and client presentations; and gathering industry, regulatory and economic information and company financial statements to forecast future potential. Source

Healthcare is a sector with its own arithmetic, and this is what a London life sciences desk works in. The central exercise is quantifying patent cliffs - revenue at risk and erosion curves, since small molecules lose 70-90% of sales within two years of losing exclusivity and biosimilars take 30-50%. On the pipeline you probability-weight assets by stage, with Phase III around 55-60%, and build risk-adjusted NPV from peak sales, time to market and a discount rate of 10-12% for pharma or 12-15% for biotech. Medtech and life sciences tools are valued on recurring revenue - razor-and-blade models where consumables carry the premium, at 15-25x and 20-30x EV/EBITDA; services trade at 8-15x, big pharma at 12-16x, biotech on rNPV alone. Then stress-test reimbursement: NICE at £30K per QALY, NHS tariff cuts, US price negotiation. Clinical and regulatory events are binary and move stocks by 50% or more. Source

27 people have held London roles in Moelis' Restructuring unit since 2018, and 12 in its M&A Advisory unit. Those are the only two London units we count for the firm and neither is this practice, so read the pair as the shape of the office rather than the size of this desk; there is no separate count for the life sciences team.

What the page gives you is a sector and a city. What it does not give you is the size of the practice, its seniority mix, or who runs it - and on a boutique sector desk those three facts decide what your two years look like, because there is no large analyst class to hide in and the senior banker's book is the deal flow. Ask them before you accept, not after.

Moelis & Company describes itself as a leading global independent investment bank providing innovative strategic advice and solutions to corporations, governments and financial sponsors, offering comprehensive integrated financial advisory services across all major industry sectors, and advising clients on mergers and acquisitions, recapitalisations and restructurings, capital markets transactions and other corporate finance matters from 23 locations across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. Source

139 people have held London roles at Moelis & Company as a whole since 2018.

This sits on the firm's Experienced Hires board, asks for 'an experienced Associate' and calls prior investment banking experience essential: it is a lateral hire, not a student seat, whatever a job board hangs on it. But the bar is softer than the word Associate suggests, and it is worth reading twice: 'Some experience in Investment Banking (corporate finance/M&A) or equivalent is essential'. Some. No number of years, no deal count, and 'or equivalent' left open. Paired with 'prior experience in the Life Sciences space', the profile it describes is someone who brings the science and enough deal exposure to be useful - a first- or second-year analyst with pharma or biotech transactions, or someone crossing from a life sciences background into banking. If that is you, this is a closer door than the title makes it look.

Opened 21 April 2026 and still on the board in September - four and a half months. We do not mark a posting closed without positive evidence from the firm, so treat it as live and unverified rather than gone. But a boutique sector seat that has been open this long is either quietly filled or hard to fill, and on a desk whose whole London presence on the page is a practice name, an email to someone on it will tell you more in a day than the form will in a month.

Required skills and experience as stated: excellent analytical and presentation skills; knowledge of basic accounting and financial concepts and the ability to analyse and value businesses; 'some experience in Investment Banking (corporate finance/M&A) or equivalent is essential'; prior experience in the Life Sciences space; results-driven and able to perform under pressure and against tight deadlines; a proven team player able to interact with a wide variety of internal groups and clients; strong multi-tasking; and strong Microsoft Office skills, with Excel a must, plus financial reporting skills. No degree class, graduation window or right-to-work line appears on the page. Source

For a student, the requirement to take seriously is the sector one. 'Prior experience in the Life Sciences space' is unusual in an Associate advert and tells you what this desk values: someone who can read a clinical pipeline and a patent expiry schedule without a translator. If you are on a science degree and considering banking, that is the rarest combination on a London healthcare desk, and the route to it is a summer or graduate analyst seat with a healthcare group, then this kind of row two years later.