EIT Health Germany Series 8: Connecting Startups With Pharma and Healthcare Providers
For new ideas and solutions to reach the market, startup founders need to find the right partners that are willing to listen to them and take their ideas one step further. At the same time, it can be daunting for pharma or insurance companies or healthcare providers to find the right fit among startups, given the rising number of innovators on the market and the general lack of time in healthcare to assess and introduce good innovative solutions.
In this episode, Hannes Toivanen, Lead, Global Digital Ecosystem Engagement at Takeda, and Jesus Jeronimo, Director of New Digital Services & Products at Sanitas + BUPA ELA talk about how pharma, insurance companies, and healthcare providers work with startups and what makes a successful partnership.
Key points:
The pharmaceutical and insurance industries are highly innovative and constantly evolving.
Startups can play a role in the innovation process by collaborating with established companies.
Successful partnerships between startups and established companies depend on good communication, shared goals, and a willingness to take risks.
The Innovation in Health organization offers programs to facilitate collaboration between startups and pharma and healthcare providers.
Sanitas and Takeda took part in the Start-ups Meet Pharma and Start-ups Meet Healthcare Providers program by Innovation in health. Established in 2015, the Health Innovation Hub & Holding provides years of expert knowledge in innovation pathways, paving the way for better healthcare and sustainable healthcare industry.
Innovation in health has many programs in its portfolio to support partnerships among relevant stakeholders in healthcare, academia and startups, to accelerate the adoption of solutions on the market.
Questions addressed:
How would you describe innovation in pharma, insurance and healthcare providers? How is innovation as a process evolving, and where do the startups fit in?
Sanitas is a health insurance company in Spain, giving its clients access to 100 private clinics in Spain. How does innovation fall in the broader digital health strategy at Sanitas?
Hannes: Last year in Helsinki, you participated in a reverse pitching event, where pharma companies pitched to startups. So what’s your value proposition to startups?
Why did Takeda decide to join the Startups Meet Pharma Program?
What were the main benefits you got out of the program?
What criteria do you take into account when looking at startups?
Jesus: How do you pick startups and reserve hospital capacity and clinical teams to test or develop solutions? What's been the outcome of being a part of the Startups meet Healthcare providers program? What were the main benefits for Sanitas?
How many projects succeed past the pilot phase? How many turn out to be useless?