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Bold solutions transforming the healthcare sector.

From connected medicine to gene therapy, innovations are helping healthcare companies achieve better patient outcomes with fewer resources for higher returns.

The healthcare sector shapes the future of our quality and longevity of life. And these are transformative times for healthcare. Even before the pandemic, aging populations and increases in chronic conditions were placing ever-greater demands on public and private providers. Covid-19 amplified an existing problem, but also catalyzed an exceptional period of collaboration and an emphasis on the democratization of global healthcare.

Thus, a wave of innovation is coursing through the sector, cultivating bold solutions to existing and emerging problems. Together, these trends and tech are transforming global healthcare, creating a healthier future for us all.

Achieving more with less

Healthcare was digitizing before Covid-19, but the need to treat remotely accelerated the process. ‘Connected care’ joins the dots between telemedicine (remote consultation), electronic health records and in-home monitoring of metrics like blood pressure and oxygen. Doctors can treat more patients during a day – but with a more complete picture, for better diagnoses. And they can better track outcomes over the long-term, something that is enabling a shift towards ‘value-based’ primary care.

Value-based care is an emerging model that rewards healthcare providers for better patient outcomes as opposed to the traditional fee-for-service model, which reimburses providers by episode of care. The traditional fee-for-service has arguably been linked to inefficient practices and over treatment. By contrast, value-based care is believed by its proponents to be more efficient, incentivizing at each stage from prevention to treatment and after-care thus effecting superior outcomes.

Kyle Armbrester, CEO, Signify Health, believes this model’s impact will be both significant, and immediate: “I think in five years, if we’ve removed waste from the system and allowed that money to be reinvested in high quality initiatives that drive better outcomes for folks, I’d consider us to be a big success,”

Red quotation marksI think in five years, if we’ve removed waste from the system and allowed that money to be reinvested in high quality initiatives that drive better outcomes for folks, I’d consider us to be a big success.”

Kyle Armbrester

CEO, Signify Health

Kyle Armbrester. CEO, Signify Health
Kyle Armbrester. CEO, Signify Health

Kyle Armbrester. CEO, Signify Health

While value-based care has become a “watchword for health systems across the globe,” says UBS Global Research Healthcare Analyst Andrea Alfonso, “its impact will probably be most significant in the U.S, which spends more per capita on health than any other country. If executed correctly, it should not only limit excessive spending and unnecessary treatment but drive patient satisfaction and knowledge, placing extra focus on preventative and post-acute measures.”

But better outcomes aren’t just dependent on care models. Medical innovation is growing, creating a wave of exciting new possibilities for patient care and outcomes.

Improving outcomes

“I’m excited by the speed of medical innovation,” says Thierry Bernard, CEO of QIAGEN, which provides advanced molecular testing for care providers and researchers. “And I think this trend will continue because of our understanding of science, of the human genome.”

Thierry Bernard. CEO, QIAGEN
Thierry Bernard. CEO, QIAGEN

Thierry Bernard. CEO, QIAGEN

mRNA vaccines – such as the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines – are a perfect example of Bernard’s point. “For the first time in human history an efficient vaccine was developed in less than two years,’” he says.

Maravai LifeSciences’ CleanCap technology is a ‘one-pot’ mRNA capping production technique that reduces the steps and equipment required to manufacture mRNA-based vaccines and therapeutics. “BioNTech was one of the first adopters of our CleanCap technology,” says Kevin Herde, CEO of Maravai LifeSciences. “They came to us in early 2020 when we were first looking to address the pandemic.”

Kevin Herde. CFO, Maravai LifeSciences
Kevin Herde. CFO, Maravai LifeSciences

Kevin Herde. CFO, Maravai LifeSciences

If mRNA vaccines improve prevention, cell therapies offer better treatment, too – even curing previously uncurable diseases. “Ten years ago, a girl was treated for leukaemia with the first cell therapy. She’s now 16 years old, cancer free,” says Robert Stefanovich, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer of pharmaceutical logistics specialists Cryoport.

Treatments like these use gene editing techniques to alter or replace faulty genes that cause life threatening diseases like cancer, cystic fibrosis, and spinal muscular atrophy. “Optimism is really growing around gene therapies” says John Sourbeer, UBS Global Research Health Care Analyst. “There are over 2,400 cell and gene therapy trials ongoing, more than double the number a decade ago.”

But these treatments are conditional on getting them to the patients at the right time and right place. “It's logistics, it’s supply chain, getting the therapies stored, getting the therapies out to patients. It’s incredibly important,” says Stefanovich.

Red quotation marksOptimism is really growing around gene therapies. There are over 2,400 cell and gene therapy trials ongoing, more than double the number a decade ago.”

John Sourbeer

UBS Global Research Health Care Analyst

Robert Stefanovich. CFO, Cryoport
Robert Stefanovich. CFO, Cryoport

Robert Stefanovich. CFO, Cryoport

Innovations in medical treatments combined with efficient value-based care models can help health providers better manage surging demand and appropriate utilization, while delivering better patient outcomes. That said, the system continues to grapple with imbalanced access to care.

Democratizing access

“In the United States, communities of color are disproportionately impacted by HIV,” says Dr. Kimberly Smith, Head of Research and Development at ViiV Healthcare, which specializes in HIV research. “Treatments and prevention often get to them last. Our work has been focused on making sure that the clinical trials represented those individuals”

Dr. Smith is also excited about new, longer-lasting replacements for daily antiretrovirals. Dr. Smith says, “We know that taking a pill every day is a really challenging reminder of a stigmatized disease”. She hopes this will widen access to treatment, as well as improve quality of life. “It’s not just about churning out new medicines,” she says. “It’s about how do you transform people’s lives?”

Kimberly Smith. Head of R&D, ViiV Healthcare
Kimberly Smith. Head of R&D, ViiV Healthcare

Kimberly Smith. Head of R&D, ViiV Healthcare

Joanna Bichsel is equally focused on overcoming access barriers. “The lower the income, the more rural, the less education, the more constraints on women,” she says. Bichsel founded Kasha, a female-focused east-African health digital retail and distribution platform. With Rwanda’s first online pharmacy licence, Kasha enables women to access health and self-care products with confidential delivery, and online information to explain what and how to use.

Bichsel explains her daughter inspired the business, making her question, “Is it okay that hundreds of millions of girls miss school because they don’t have basic products?”

Joanna Bichsel. Founder and CEO, Kasha Global Inc.
Joanna Bichsel. Founder and CEO, Kasha Global Inc.

Joanna Bichsel. Founder and CEO, Kasha Global Inc.

All these companies and many more are transforming healthcare to help patients get the care they need as they age – including those in underserved communities – and pushing the boundaries of what can and cannot be treated.

“I am inspired every day by the innovation taking place,” says Noah Zurad, Healthcare Sector Specialist, Global Markets at UBS “The new care models, the efforts to widen access, and the remarkable advancements in the treatment landscape”. The companies he works with – and others in the sector – he says are, “motivated and energized by the mission of helping us all lead healthier lives and longer lives. At UBS, we believe these themes will open up new and compelling market opportunities across the sector.”

Noah Zurad. Healthcare Sector Specialist, UBS
Noah Zurad. Healthcare Sector Specialist, UBS

Noah Zurad. Healthcare Sector Specialist, UBS

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