Health and Innovation: The Impact of Private Equity Investments Increasing life expectancy and global population, rising living standards on an international scale... The demand for access to healthcare has exploded in recent years, undeniably leading to a steady rise in healthcare expenditure. In fact, the OECD predicts that healthcare spending will outstrip GDP growth by 2030.
The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the need to strengthen the resilience of healthcare systems, with the need to protect the health of populations, consolidate the foundations of healthcare systems, support healthcare workers and accompany patients.
The OECD has identified 6 priority investments, representing an average of 1.4% of GDP per country, to help reduce the overall increase in healthcare expenditure over the medium and long term. The OECD's priority investments are :
- Improving preventive care (which requires, in particular, the deployment of predictive artificial intelligence, as is being done by Idoven - which specializes in early detection and precision medicine for cardiovascular disease - and Screenpoint Medical, which facilitates breast cancer detection, two companies featured in Vintage Altaroc Odyssey 2021).
- Develop programs aimed at the general population.
- Sufficient basic equipment.
- Efficiently exploit health information (the example of Overjet, whose artificial intelligence is capable of analyzing 18 months of X-rays to detect future cavities and identify potential dental diseases, or Iterative Scopes, which is revolutionizing gastroenterology technologies, companies also present in the Vintage Altaroc Odyssey 2021).
- Adequate staffing levels in the healthcare and dependency sectors.
- Set up a health reserve.
Source: OECD Secretariat
Global growth in demand for medicines
As a logical consequence, the global drug market has reached sales of $1,291 billion in 2021, up 6.8% on 2020. The United States is the leading market with 47.2% of global sales, ahead of Europe (24.5% market share), China (9.7%) and Asia-Pacific countries (13.2%). Oncology is the leading therapeutic area in terms of market share, followed by autoimmune diseases. Present at Vintage Altaroc Odyssey 2021, this is exactly the niche in which the Chinese company Biotheus has positioned itself, a fast-growing biotechnology company focused on curing malignant tumors and autoimmune diseases.
Challenges for the healthcare sector over the next 10 years
The World Health Organization' (WHO) stresses that "health is an investment in the future [...] Leaders are not investing sufficiently in health priorities and essential health systems, putting lives, livelihoods and economies at risk. We need to promote domestic financing to fill gaps in health systems and health infrastructure, and support the most vulnerable countries. Investing now will save lives later - and money. We can't afford to do nothing because it would cost too much. Governments, communities and institutions must work together to achieve these fundamental goals. We can't take side roads to a healthier world. 2030 is fast approaching, and our leaders must be held to account for their commitments.
Investing in health: a fundamental choice for the future Altaroc
Altaroc has, from the outset, included healthcare as one of the key investment sectors.
As Frédéric Stolar, Managing Partner ofAltaroc , explains, "We're in a market where Tech and Data are creating new solutions every day, because the State, which has little room to maneuver, needs efficiency from service providers to lower the cost of services".