Partnering Strategies for Success in Digital Health
Digital health companies are experiencing rapid growth in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era. As a result, partnering opportunities have expanded, and innovative players are increasingly collaborating with large pharma companies to serve patient needs better.
Brad Gescheider, Global Head of Digital Innovation and Patient Services at Sanofi, offered the perspective of a large pharmaceutical company on digital health partnering. He explained that large pharma companies lack the internal expertise in digital health and software development to deliver value and utility to patients. As a result, they seek to partner with a range of smaller, more agile companies. Internal challenges, including bristling against technologies ‘not invented here,’ can be overcome by demonstrating the cost savings and market differentiation gained through partnering.
Partnering opportunities with governments exist for digital health companies, too. James Lu, CEO of Helix, explained that during the pandemic’s early days, his company partnered with the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide a testing and diagnostic capacity for the US west coast. Helix scaled their business rapidly in partnership with the NIH, experiencing 50% week-on-week growth until they were processing 150,000 COVID-19 tests daily.
Scaling across geographies remains a challenge for digital health innovators. Regulatory regimes and privacy rules vary by region; navigating those different standards can prove challenging. Kal Patel, CEO of BrightInsight, explained that delivering their Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) required reflecting on these regional differences early and often during the development phase. He urged collaboration with partners that understood the importance of this approach.
Read other Congress Reports
Spurring Biotech Innovation Across the Globe: A High-Level Discussion
Wisdom and Wagers: Perspectives from Big Pharma Dealmakers
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