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Contents i Executive Summary... 1 Methodologies and Objectives...3 Expert Contributors...4 Key questions answered in this report...5 Overview of venture capital funding in the digital health sector...6 Venture capital funding stages...6 Current worldwide investment...8 Current US investment... 11 Pharma moves from customer to digital health investor...12 Pharma s venture capital funding in digital health...13 Corporate VC...13 Partnering with institutional VCs...16 Case Study: GE Ventures and Omada Health... 17 Pharma needs to balance strategic and financial return on investment...18 Pharma s Joint Ventures with tech companies for Research & Development...20 Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)...23 Accelerators: supporting the startup ecosystem...24 Case Study: GE Ventures and StartUp Health...25 Opportunities and challenges in partnering with startups... 27 Opportunities... 27 Challenges...28
ii Keys to successful pharma and startup partnerships...30 Key insights...30 Finding the right technology startup for investment... 31 Relationship between pharma and startup must be reciprocal... 31 Qualities of successful startup founders and teams...36 Digital health technologies pharma should invest in...38 Areas of pharma business that can benefit from digital health investments... 41 Advice for entrepreneurs...43 Choosing the right type of investor: pharma corporate VC versus experienced tech company VC...44 Critical needs for investing in digital health...46 Digital health will impact pharma s core business, new business models are needed... 46 Pharma needs data that digital health provides to justify the value of therapies... 48 Pharma can leverage digital health to enhance drug treatment and improve behaviour... 49 Pharma motivated to compete with tech giants leading digital health...50 The future of pharma investment in digital health technology... 51 Regulatory climate for pharma investment in digital health is rapidly evolving... 51 Emerging corporate venturing models present new opportunities for pharma...53 Case Study: GE Ventures four pillars of innovation...54 Future model of venture investment for pharma companies not yet clear...55 Pharma needs to determine optimal structure to lead digital health investment... 57 Closing thoughts: 2017 and beyond...59
Methodologies and Objectives 3 This FirstWord Dossier report provides insights on how pharma companies can approach corporate venturing in digital health and technology, a fairly nascent area of pharma investment. This mid-year report looks at the overall investments in the digital health sector and pharma s corporate venturing activities in 2016. The information for this report was gathered from multiple sources, including primary research from in depth telephone interviews with experts at the forefront of digital health investments, such as pharma and healthcare corporate venture arms, venture capitalists, and consultancies. Secondary research was sourced mainly from publicly available sources of information to understand the scope of the digital health investing opportunity and startup ecosystem, and the effects on decision making within the pharma industry regarding technology partnerships.
Expert Contributors 4 The interviewees were selected on the basis of their expertise, and include the following individuals: Brett Davis, General Manager for ConvergeHEALTH by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting, US Ricardo dos Santos, Director, 4iNNO, US Kristian Hart-Hansen, CEO, LEO Innovation Lab, DK Ulrich Muehlner, Founder & Managing Director, GrowthCube Partners LLC, CH Tony Romito, Managing Director, Accenture Life Sciences, US Steve Seuntjens, Partner, PHS Fund, NL Ruchita Sinha, Director, GE Ventures, Healthcare, US Marc Sluijs, Digital Health Investment Advisor, CH
5 Key questions answered in this report Which pharma companies are leading the way in funding digital health startups? How critical is it for pharma to start making investments in digital health? Where is pharma concentrating digital health investments: partnerships, joint ventures, startup accelerators, Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) or Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)? Is pharma investing in digital health for strategic or financial return on investment (ROI)? What types of investments will create the greatest returns? Which types of technologies and digital health startups should pharma be investing in? What opportunities and challenges do partnerships with tech startups present for pharma companies? What benefits does pharma provide digital health startups? What benefits do startups provide pharma? What is the future model of venture investment for pharma companies in digital health?
12 Pharma moves from customer to digital health investor Pharma companies are moving from being digital health customers to digital health investors, setting up corporate venture arms, and expanding teams globally. Tony Romito, managing director of Accenture Life Sciences, says that it s still early days for pharma investors, but we re going to see that C-level commitment at the top. He adds, It s less about a company s specific initiative or funds, and more about a long-term strategic commitment to digital health being core to pharma s business. Experts say the majority of pharma s investments in digital health include venture capital investments, Joint Ventures (JV) and external partnerships, and startup accelerators. Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies tend to favour joint ventures for disruptive technologies. Experts say pharma is not yet actively pursuing Mergers & Acquisitions, but the cash-rich, margin-rich pharma industry is well suited to this type of investment in digital health. Figure 2: Pharma corporate venturing in digital health Venture Capital (VC) Corporate VC Partnering with third party VC Joint venture capital fund for investments Source: FirstWord research and analysis Pharma corporate venturing in digital health Joint venture with a tech company for R&D M&A is an opportunity Accelerators
Credibility: 33 Pharma provides startups with credibility. If pharma buys in, that means there s a belief in their science, says Seuntjens. He notes that in the case of LEO and SkinVision, it made sense, because LEO is completely focused on skin issues. They carry scientific credibility, and a global presence. To be clear, it s more than short-term gain. LEO is invested for the same reasons. Access to capital and customers: Tech companies are looking for money, access to pharma s clinical trials and patient pools, and access to specific expertise in clinical development, regulatory matters, market access or commercialisation, says Muehlner. Davis says that capital requirements are probably less than in other types of collaborations, but the ability to experiment around the pharma company s agenda is probably greater. Marc Sluijs says that startups benefit from pharma s significant financial resources and access to larger patient populations, essential to building a relevant evidence base. He notes, deploying these technologies in large populations will generate much more useful data, and an opportunity to fine-tune solutions. Generating clinical, as well as cost-effectiveness outcome data at sufficient scale, will be valuable to the market, and in discussions with healthcare providers and payers. Muehlner agrees that pharma can provide the money, if needed, and pharma can help smaller companies overcome the challenge of validating their products in larger clinical trials. Sinha says startups have access to GE s customers; GE Healthcare s customers include some of the largest healthcare systems in the US and globally. Once companies come into our portfolio, we have a dedicated team that helps connect these portfolio companies to GE s customers. We match the innovation needs of a large hospital system or a health system and the specific portfolio company that helps meet that need.
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