Ecosystems, partnerships, and the future of health

Seismic Shifts webcast: Ecosystems, partnerships, and the future of health

In the future of health, we envision an era of unprecedented convergence collaboration, partnerships, and affiliations across all sectors of the life science and health care ecosystem. New business models are rapidly evolving, many of which will be disruptive to existing players and many of which will include collaborations, partnerships, and alliances with nontraditional life sciences and health care organizations. And while we expect to see new business models emerge over time, the current public health crisis is accelerating the need for the health care industry to develop different ways to deliver care, engage with the consumers, and address social inequalities.

In this webcast, we’ll discuss:

• How health care is rapidly evolving toward a consumer-centric model where technologies play an increased role
• How companies are using partnerships to replace traditional M&A
• How ecosystem partnerships will likely drive disruptive innovation and transformation

New deals in health care: Ecosystem partnerships

Just as fintech disrupted financial services, “healthtech” is on the verge of transforming health care. The definition of health care M&A is expanding to include alliances, partnerships, and joint ventures that would have been considered unlikely a decade ago.

A disruptive shift in health care is already developing. A rise in consumerism is converging with margin pressures and new technologies to drive health care providers in search of new business models. In many cases, they seek to acquire new capabilities by forming alliances with other organizations.

Many provider organizations appear to be increasing investment in and partnerships with consumer and technology companies in orthogonal moves, or deals that seek to consolidate vertically in a specific sector. An insurer, for example, might purchase a pharmacy provider to streamline prescription services and claims, or a retailer could align with a care provider to establish accessible clinics in convenient retail locations.

These kinds of deals have been steadily gaining ground over the past few years, and discussions about pursuing new opportunities are increasing amid the pandemic. Whether organizations pursue traditional mergers and acquisitions or other types of deals, such as partnerships, joint ventures, alliances, or similar arrangements, the M&A market is becoming more active. Deal structures are becoming more flexible, with organizations that seek to migrate to the new future of health.

With this shift, organizations are likely to migrate to new business archetypes to stake their claims. Health care providers likely need new capabilities in data science, for example, while product developers may need more infrastructure or expertise in technology.

Few organizations today have the breadth of expertise that may be required to compete effectively and efficiently in the new health care landscape. What’s more, few organizations have the necessary combination of capital, talent, and infrastructure to build new capabilities organically. As such, alliances and partnership are a more likely route to building an appropriate archetype.

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Symptoms of a healthy innovation ecosystem

The roads to the future of health care will be paved between academia, capital, startups, and supportive governments: “innovation ecosystems” modeled on Silicon Valley that leverage a convergence of talent and proximity where the sum is greater than its parts.

Deloitte’s latest report, New roads to the health care of tomorrow, lays out how insurgent investors are birthing disruption from innovation ecosystems and shares actionable strategies for creating more health care hotspots like these.