Steve Burrill Highlights Major Transitions in U.S. Healthcare at UCSF’s
14th Annual State of the Life Sciences Industry
By, Karen Ring Ph.D.
In the 14th annual address on the State of the Life Sciences Industry, Steve Burrill, founder and CEO of Burrill & Company, gave an overview of the current standing of the life sciences industry and detailed major transitions in U.S. healthcare in the next decade. The event was hosted by the Entrepreneurship Center at UCSF and was the introductory class to a popular team-based entrepreneurship course called “Idea to IPO”.
Overview on 2013 in Life Sciences
2013 was an exciting year for the life sciences sector with 52 companies going public and raising a total of $7.5 billion from investors. This was an impressive increase in the number of IPOs compared to 2012, when 16 companies went public and raised $1.1 billion. Burrill attributed this past year’s booming prosperity to a strengthening U.S. economy, the approval of 39 new drugs in 2012 by the FDA, the success of established biotech and pharmaceutical companies, and the high demand for novel therapeutics, diagnostics, health-related technology.
He also touched on trends that are reshaping the life sciences industry including major acquisitions by big pharma (e.g. Onyx by Amgen) instead of building in-house programs, broadening investor interest and capital inflows into healthcare, development of biosimilar drugs and specialized therapeutics for orphan diseases, and an increase in clinical trial transparency.
Major Transitions in US Healthcare
With the advent of Obamacare, major changes to the U.S. healthcare system and market are already happening. Burrill listed a number of significant differences that will occur. The U.S. will experience a transition from a “one size fits all” model towards precision medicine and personalized healthcare. Promoting and incentivising patient wellness will be the main focus of the new system, which is already burdened with treating costly chronic diseases and caring for an aging baby boomer population.
While drug discovery and novel therapeutics will remain important, diagnostics and personalized therapies will be in high demand as precision medicine, which combines molecular profiling of patient genomic information with clinical and pathological data, will identify which patients respond positively to specific drugs or vaccines thereby offering the most effective treatment with minimized consequences. Furthermore, where money was previously funneled into doctor-administered procedures, the balance will be tipped towards paying for treatment outcomes, which will shift the focus towards overall quality of care rather than quantity.
Accompanying all these changes, Burrill predicts a massive consolidation and integration of the healthcare system in the next five years.
Personalized Healthcare and Digital Health at the Forefront
Burrill explained that digital health companies are revolutionizing our healthcare system by providing tools, technology, and applications, involving telemedicine, electronic health records, patient monitoring services, population health management, “big data” analysis, and hospital administration. Personalized healthcare aided by digital health technology will allow patients easier access to medical and clinical information, and will provide health plans and treatments tailored to individual patients.
Additionally, digital health partnered with precision medicine will foster predictive and preventative means to anticipate disease, identify drug-drug interactions, and vastly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care. Digital health has already had a large impact on U.S. healthcare and will continue to do so as venture capital funding and the number of digital health IPOs rise over the next year.
What 2014 Holds for Life Sciences
Burrill’s prediction for the state of life sciences industry in 2014 was positive yet practical. He discussed how there would be continued success but a slowing in momentum with regards to number of IPOs and amount of capital raised compared to 2013. He pointed out that under Obamacare, there will be more pressure by payers on drug companies to lower costs of new therapeutics, and to prove that these new drugs are cost-effective compared to similar drugs already on the market.
Patients will switch from passive to active roles in wellness management aided by the abundance of clinical data at their finger tips, diagnostics will be in higher demand, and innovation will focus heavily on treatment and prevention of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and dementia, that have become global epidemics.
Burrill closed his address by reiterating his main point about how U.S. healthcare is moving away from its original focus on medical procedures and costs towards a system that embraces values and overall health outcomes.
Karen Ring is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. To contact Karen, email at Ring.Karen@gmail.com.
