Inefficiencies, long delays, high costs for both patients and insurers… The healthcare industry has long been ripe for a digital makeover and the health crisis has clearly sparked accelerated adoption of digital solutions and a more supportive regulatory and reimbursement framework.
If telemedicine has been standing out, Technology is gradually breaking into most healthcare segments with the aim to accompany the patient through his entire medical journey, from prevention and detection to care and repair.
Against a backdrop of rising health awareness and anxiety, fitness and medical wearables are on the rise, with people seeking to track their body temperature, blood pressure, glucose level and other signals in order to get back control of their health.
The proliferation of these wearables and the gradual rise of at-home diagnostics should radically transform the tracking of health in the future, with physicians gaining the ability to monitor patients remotely in what is expected to become a virtual care experience.
Precision medicine is also on its way to become reality with genomic testing and liquid biopsies opening up a new era in diagnostics, therapy optimization and disease monitoring.
In wound and disease care, robotics, biosensing and Artificial Intelligence are giving rise to a new generation of surgeries and medical devices, not only repairing but also potentially enhancing humans.
In all, this tech-powered healthcare revolution represents a massive business opportunity and Tech players have arguably set their sights on it. While they have already invested in activities ranging from online pharmacy to robotics, they could well try to speed up their expansion through M&A.
Nearly one million cancer cases have been neglected across Europe due to the pandemic according to the European Cancer Organisation. In the US, the National Cancer Institute documented that nearly ten million cancer screenings were missed nationwide during the coronavirus outbreak. Due to ignored appointments and cancer screenings, Covid-19 will therefore, unfortunately, cause indirect increases…
Microsoft just announced the acquisition of medical artificial intelligence software maker Nuance in a deal worth $19.7bn, that represents a 23% premium to the last closing price. Nuance, one of our Digital Health portfolio companies, is focused on speech recognition software that allows physicians to capture patient discussions and enter the data into electronic health…
There’s definitely a lot of excitement around liquid biopsies and genomic testing, as illustrated by the acquisition announced today of Thrive Earlier Detection for up to $2.15bn by Exact Sciences. This transaction follows the $8bn purchase of Grail by Illumina a few weeks ago and that of ArcherDx by Invitae for up to $1.4bn in June.…
In early July, we commented that Livongo was arguably one of the most attractive assets in the Digital Health and Nutrition Tech space and was likely to attract takeover interest. Well, we didn’t have to wait long to see some M&A action as Livongo and leading telemedicine player Teladoc announced their merger today in a…
Bucking the market trend, our largest Digital Health position Teladoc reached a new high yesterday. How to fight the spread of novel infectious diseases such as the coronavirus? That’s the question health authorities across the world have had to answer in recent weeks and it appears that new technologies, namely telemedicine and medical robotics, can…
NAV & Performance
ISIN
CH0473585245
Currency
USD
Type
Active Equity
Issuer / Rating
UBS / S&P A+
Inception Date
04.11.2019
Liquidity
Daily