Gilde Healthcare Counts on Convergence to Reshape the Life Sciences

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ARTICLE SUMMARY:

Gilde Healthcare was barely a player in medtech a decade ago. Today it is one of Europe’s most active investors in medical devices, with an exit-centric model and a novel relationship with Philips Healthcare. In Part 2 of this article, we explore Gilde’s strategy around digital health and convergence and look at some of the issues confronting Europe-based investors, including, in the long term, CE mark reform and, in the shorter term, the coronavirus pandemic.

One area of innovation that Gilde has focused on in particular is digital health or healthtech, as they call it. It’s an important rationale for its Philips Healthcare partnership and a key part of Gilde’s strategy going forward. (See part 1 of this article, “Gilde Healthcare and the Power of Partnerships in Medtech Investing,” MedTech Strategist, May 19, 2020.)

Gilde basically takes the same approach to digital investments that it does with medtech and biotech. But there are some important and differences in the dynamics of each sector. One is a shift from physician-centric healthcare to consumer- and patient-centric care. Digital “is actually disrupting medtech,” says Janke Dittmer, PhD, General Partner at Gilde Healthcare. “We believe very strongly that there’s a convergence,”he goes on, “which is why medtech investors can’t ignore digital.” In fact, Dittmer argues that the convergence between medtech and digital will be even greater and deeper than drug/device convergence—and the same goes for the convergence between digital and pharma.

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