Top 5 trends that will boost the Healthcare sector

Trends to track in Healthcare Sector

Wherever we look in the healthcare industry, we can find new technology being used to fight illness, develop new vaccines and medicines, and help people to live healthier lives.

It is apparent that some pharmaceutical companies are starting to recognize the impact of the two major shifts: Downward pressure on pricing and the move towards prevention, diagnosis, and real cures. These changes are upsetting the established order, opening the door to new competition, and forcing companies to rethink where they play – and who they play with, requiring a growing emphasis on collaboration and partnership.

Over the last two years, many tech companies have focused on applying their expertise to solve problems caused by the global pandemic. At the same time, many healthcare companies that would not necessarily have traditionally been considered tech companies have turned their attention to technology and its potential to transform the delivery of their products and services.

It's clear that the pandemic has accelerated the digitization of the healthcare industry. According to the HIMSS Future of Healthcare Report, 80% of healthcare providers plan to increase investment in technology and digital solutions over the next five years. We will continue to see growth in areas including telemedicine, personalized medicine, genomics, and wearables, with organizers leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, extender reality (XR), and the internet of things (IoT) to develop and deliver new treatments and services.

Top 5 trends that will boost the growth of the Healthcare sector

From drug discovery and development to medical imaging and patient engagement, artificial intelligence occupies a prominent position in the industry. Along with big data and analytics, more than a third of pharma startups are working on software solutions for the industry.

There is still a lack of access to basic medicines in many regions of the world, prompting demand for flexible pharmaceutical manufacturing. The use of real-world data to collect accurate patient experiences, blockchain to securely transact and manage patient records, and augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR, VR & MR) solutions also find a place in the top 10 pharma industry trends. However, these trends cover only a small fraction of the breadth of innovation in the industry. Based on your specific criteria, your top trends can look quite different.

1. Remote healthcare and telemedicine

Even when COVID goes, telemedicine is here to stay. Doctors in India were stymied by the lack of clarity – whether I can, or I cannot, and if they would be taken to the court. But on 25 March 2020, the Medical Council of India amended the ethics part of the rules and the telemedicine practice guidelines were issued – it has certain lacunas, but I am sure they will get better over time. But I think the dissemination of the knowledge that telemedicine is legal has not reached the nth degree. So its potential is not being fully harnessed. But over time telemedicine consults will become a regularity.

The reasons for this increase are obvious – but even when we take communicable diseases out of the equation, there are plenty of good reasons to develop capabilities to examine, diagnose and treat patients remotely. In remote regions and places where there are shortages of doctors (such as China and India) this trend has the potential to save lives by dramatically expanding access to medical treatment.

2. Making sense of medical data with AI and machine learning

The high-level use case for AI in healthcare, as in other sectors, is in helping to make sense of the huge amount of messy, unstructured data that’s available for capture and analysis. In healthcare, this can take the form of medical image data – X-rays, CT and MRI scans, as well as many other sources, including information on the spread of communicable diseases like covid, the distribution of vaccines, genomic data from living cells, and even handwritten doctors' notes.

Digital twins are quickly becoming popular in many industries, in a trend that involves creating models informed by real-world data that can be used to simulate any system or process.

In healthcare, this trend encompasses the idea of the virtual patient – digital simulations of people that are used to test drugs and treatments, with the aim of reducing the time it takes to get new medicines from the design stage into general use. Initially, this may be confined to models or simulations of individual organs or systems. However, progress is being made towards useful models that simulate entire bodies. Current research suggests this is still some way from being a realistic possibility, but during 2022 we will continue to see progress towards this goal.

Shift in trends – for better future       

An increasing number of pharmaceutical firms – and, indeed, medical device companies – are partnering and integrating with technology businesses. In a bid to tackle the huge and rising blight of diabetes, Sanofi and Verily, the life sciences unit of Google parent Alphabet, announced in September 2016 that they would invest approximately US$500 million in a joint venture to combine devices, software, and medicine.

We believe medical device companies are leading the cooperation with tech companies. For example, in the diabetes space, one interesting partnership involves device giant Medtronic teaming up with tech firm Qualcomm, to develop a continuous glucose monitoring system that will also provide actionable insights to patients and providers.

Software is becoming more and more important in our lives, and healthcare is no exception. Another pharma tech alliance between Varian Medical Systems and Flatiron Health aims to develop cloud-based, electronic health records, data analytics, and decision support software geared toward oncology patients.

3. Nutraceuticals are the gem of healthcare

In the vitamins and nutrients market, the top five categories constitute ~85% share. Increasing focus on prevention, self-care, health and wellness, and awareness about the importance of high immunity is leading to increased consumption of vitamin and mineral supplements and other nutraceutical products.

4. Biosimilars

New chemical entities (NCEs) and new biological entities (NBEs) These products are the major focus for leading multinational pharma companies. Indian companies are beginning to improve their in-house novel drug development with the aim of launching new blockbusters. Developing NCEs and NBEs put Indian companies in direct competition with global innovators. Some of the large Indian pharma companies, such as Zydus, Glenmark, and Sun, as well as clinical research organizations (CROs) and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), are already engaged in researching new drugs.

In 2013, Zydus became the first Indian company to launch an indigenously developed NCE, Lipaglyn (saroglitazar), the world’s first glitazar treatment for diabetic dyslipidemia or hypertriglyceridemia in Type II diabetes, not controlled by statins alone. The drug was recently approved as the first drug for the treatment of Non-Cirrhotic and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH) in India (March 2020).

The second phase of development in the US is expected to get approval in 2027. Biocon was the first company to launch indigenously developed novel biologics in India. The company launched BIOMab EGFR for head and neck cancer treatment in 2006, and Alzumab (itolizumab) for psoriasis treatment in 2013. Both these novel monoclonal antibodies have been launched in several countries in collaboration with global companies.

5. Rise in E-pharmacies/ E- Prescriptions

E-pharmacy holds the potential to improve the accessibility of medicine to even the remotest corners of the country. The first online pharmacy was started in the US in the late 1990s. In India, the e-pharmacy space is still at a nascent stage. The market was estimated at US$0.5b in 201954 with companies such as NetMeds, PharmEasy, Medlife, and 1mg dominating the market. It is projected to reach US$4.5b in 2025 at a CAGR of 44% for the period 2019—2025, representing about 10%-12% of the pharmaceutical sales (up from 2%-3% levels in 2019).

India’s drug prices are among the lowest in the world. However, they are still out of reach for a large percentage of the population due to high out-of-pocket expenditure. To tackle affordability issues, price control mechanisms have been in place since 1955 when the government first imposed price ceilings under Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act.

Many of the developments in the pharmaceutical industry mirror those in the automotive sector. Like pharmaceuticals, the industry is relatively mature and made up of a few major players. And automakers also face intense pressure from regulators – in their case to cut emissions, accelerating the move toward electric and other non-polluting vehicles. The growing dependence upon technology, primarily software, is attracting the interest of new entrants such as Google, Uber, and Tesla who are focusing on mobility, rather than on the automotive industry itself.

Pharmaceutical companies that manage to embrace the most appropriate archetypes, and master disruption, have the greatest chance to deliver real value.

Twitter Handle: @shuchi_nahar

Disclaimer: The information provided on Shuchi Nahar’s Weekend Blog is for educational purposes only. I am not SEBI Registered please ask your investment advisor before taking any actions. The articles may contain external links, references, and a compilation of various publicly available articles. Hence all the authors are given due credit for the same. All copyrights and trademarks of images belong to their respective owners and are used for Fair Educational Purpose only.