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Health is the number one priority for each of us, consumers and capital will continue to be enthusiastic about this area this year, and what new technologies and trends are worth looking forward to? ”
If 2020 is the year we were caught off guard by the epidemic, then 2021 is the year we were reborn and adapted, learning how to maintain social distancing while restoring semi-normal life, learning to learn remote learning and work as a common thing, and more importantly, we learned how to make health a top priority, a number of high-end health technologies are changing the way we diagnose and treat diseases, and the medical system adapts to a more efficient and remote care model. The public has also learned how to better pay attention to and take care of their health.
Deloitte's report shows that there were 556 transactions in the health technology sector in the first three quarters of 2021, raising $23.8 billion, a record high, while Rock Health, which focuses on digital health investments, also announced that the digital health sector harvested 729 transactions in 2021, with a total transaction value of $29.1 billion, crushing $14.9 billion in 2020.
Health is the number one priority for each of us, consumers and capital will continue to be enthusiastic about this area this year, and what new technologies and trends are worth looking forward to?
01
High-tech: Breaking down barriers to diagnosis and treatment
Artificial intelligence is currently being widely used in various fields, biotechnology is no exception, among many applications, targeted treatment for cancer and drug development is the hottest. For example, HotSpot Therapeutics, which raised $100 million last year, developed a technology that can discover and target protein pockets known as "natural hotspots", which are decisive for protein function and disease response, and the inhibitors developed by HotSpot have the potential to improve the effectiveness of patients who have not responded well to cancer immunotherapy in the past.
Insilico Medicine from Hong Kong is a leading player in AI drug discovery, just completed a round of $255 million Series C financing last year, a total of $310 million has been completed so far, it first realized the use of AI from target discovery to the development of clinical candidates for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) last year, the whole process took only 18 months, much more efficient than the traditional drug development process, the drug has now entered the clinical research stage, Insilico's ultimate goal is to develop the ultimate solution for human aging.
Also in this space is Varo, which completed consecutive $190 million and $110 million financing last year, which focuses on the development of targeted drug technologies for cancer and will merge with SPAC, a subsidiary of Khosla Ventures, to go public; DeepCure, which uses AI engines to develop small molecule drugs, completed a $40 million funding round last year; Insitro, founded by Renowned Scholar Dr. Daphne Koller at Tamford University, raised $400 million last year; and Quris, developer of AI drug discovery and clinical prediction technologies, completed a $28 million funding round earlier this year...
In the first half of last year alone, financing in the AI drug development space reached $2.1 billion, almost catching up with $3 billion for the whole of 2020. The global AI drug development market reached $230 million last year and is expected to reach $4 billion within 10 years.
Image credit: Emersion Insights
In addition to diagnosis and drugs, how to carry out precision treatment is a topic that the medical community has been working on, in 2020 Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna two scientists won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with CRISPR gene editing technology, more startups began to explore the widespread application of this technology, in one sentence to explain crispr is a biological scissors-like existence, can cut and replace genes in cells and organisms, It has the potential to permanently cure genetic diseases and diagnoses based on DNA.
Image source: Vox
Mammoth Biosciences, founded by Jennifer Doudna himself, will focus on disease detection by adding guide RNA to samples to help CRISPR enzymes search for DNA sequences associated with specific diseases, simplifying the disease diagnosis process, and it has developed a COVID-19 test kit that is authorized for emergency use by the FDA during the outbreak.
Mammoth, who officially became a unicorn after receiving $150 million in Series D funding last September, aims to create a "CRISPR tool library," a CRISPR-based protein warehouse that can be imagined as scissors for different purposes, capable of in vivo treatment, very different from the pattern of taking cells out of the body for treatment and then sending them back into the body, which is important for neurology and immuno-oncology.
Caribou Biosciences, another company founded by Doudna, also went public last year and completed a $304 million funding round, making it the largest IPO in gene editing, and its patented chRDNA technology can improve the efficiency of gene editing and better use CRISPR for targeted cancer cell therapies.
Last year, Verve, a gene-editing company that went public and raised $267 million, has the technology to turn chronic management of heart disease into one-off gene-editing drug treatments by clipping two lipid-related genes.
Gene editing has always led to discussions about ethics and morality, such as the previous domestic use of gene editing to create twins who can resist HIV, which has raised concerns about disrupting natural evolution, and there are still many moral questions that need to be answered before this technology is adopted on a large scale.
But at present, the biggest problem in this field is how to popularize this technology in large quantities and low costs, many genetic diseases affect only a few people, for medical and pharmaceutical companies the value is not enough to support the high cost of research and development, we expect that more breakthrough technologies will appear at the same time they will be more mature and efficient.
02
Daily care: taking the initiative is easy
Beyond high technology, 2021 also continued some of the trends in daily visits and care in 2020, with a McKinsey survey showing that telemedicine is now used 38 times more than before the pandemic. In addition to reducing the spread of the virus, telemedicine is more able to help patients in remote areas to obtain medical help, and it is also more adaptable to the habits of the younger generation of consumers who are accustomed to seeking help on mobile terminals.
Image credit: McKinsey
In addition to emergency care, telemedicine is also expanding into other areas, such as the care of chronic diseases and incurable diseases, which means that we are entering the era of "telemedicine 2.0", such as Heartbeat Health, which completed a $20 million financing last year, allows heart patients to complete multiple tasks such as finding a doctor, customizing medical solutions, uploading cardiac function indicators in real time, and obtaining long-term and timely stable care on the platform.
Image source: Hearbeat
Last year, Stable Health, which completed $140 million led by Alphabet's independent growth fund CapitalG, provides innovative care solutions for kidney disease patients, integrating data from chronic kidney disease and terminal end-stage kidney disease patients in various systems, which is important in predicting patients' conditions and tracking disease progression, and can also provide customized care and dialysis program planning for patients, saving 29% of medical costs than traditional models.
Hinge Health wants to help users solve musculoskeletal diseases (MSK) such as back pain, patients can get special programs in early prevention, acute pain and chronic rehabilitation, and can also practice according to rehabilitation teaching, the induction belt worn can detect whether the movement is in place to judge long-term progress, and then support coaches to provide better health guidance for patients, Hinge Health acquired the wearable device company Enso last year. Provides users with high-frequency and noninvasive pulsed non-addictive pain relief. He completed two $300 million Series D rounds and $400 million Series E rounds led by Coatue and Tiger Global Management last year.
Image credit: MobiHealthNews
Similarly, Hisms & Hers, which provides care for the embarrassing health problems of men and women, went public last year and valued at $1.6 billion; Noom, which uses behavioral therapy to help users lose weight and manage their health, completed a $540 million Series F round of financing led by Silver Lake last year; and Ro, a telemedicine company that made his fortune in men's health, began expanding its business into weight management and female fertility...
We've also seen telehealth evolve omnichannel, such as telehealth unicorn Triny Madison opening a physical store in New York for its Keeps brand to give users a try on men's hair transplant solutions; Kindbody, which provides online fertility care and home care for women, opening a physical fertility clinic and IVF lab; and Kaia Health and Luna Physical, a digital therapy company for MSK diseases Therapy partners to provide real life treatments...
Healthcare providers such as UnitedHealthcare, Cigna and CVS/Aetna are starting to launch their own digital products; Amazon is bringing Alexa to hospitals and aged centers where patients can communicate with caregivers and perform tasks through passwords...
This year we will see telemedicine evolve more towards multi-discipline, omnichannel, depth and specialization, bringing more comprehensive and convenient care to patients and continuing to increase user acceptance of digital health solutions.
The new crown has also made us accustomed to frequent self-testing to determine whether we are infected with the virus, and people's enthusiasm for testing is not limited to the new crown, through testing and testing to understand their own health indicators and even genetic makeup to predict diseases or adjust lifestyle has become a new enthusiasm for many people.
Viome, a company that allows users to provide blood and stool samples to analyze microbes such as gut bacteria and viruses, is popular, serving more than 300,000 users because Viome simplifies complex scientific reports into practical diet and lifestyle recommendations, and Viome completed a $54 million Series C funding round last year to expand its business into clinical research on cancer and chronic diseases. The ultimate goal is to one day detect cancer, Ozheimer's disease and metabolic diseases early through the use of mRNA and AI techniques.
Image credit: Viome
Genetic testing company 23andMe also went public last year, with a valuation of $3.5 billion, users only need to provide saliva samples to obtain DNA reports, so get results related to health risks and ancestry traceability, about 80% of users on the platform are authorized to provide personal data for research, so 23andMe was able to create a huge gene pool that is important for providing genetic treatments for conditions such as cancer and diabetes.
Of course, there are more enthusiastic health maniacs are not satisfied with a momentary detection, but choose to wear a device to monitor their own indicators at all times, such as who is known as the health data world Tesla who will collect the user's digital biometric data 24 hours a day, the bracelet 5 sensors will carry out 100 data collection per second, users can view detailed stress, heart rate and sleep analysis, and get up to bed, the maximum weight of the iron can be what and other suggestions, in the past two years the user growth is very rapid, WHOOP completed a $200 million funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund last year, valuing it at $3.6 billion.
Image credit: Ben Greenfield Fitness
Companies like Level, Movano, Undermyfork, and others use non-invasive technology for blood glucose monitoring, allowing users to adjust their lifestyle at any time according to their metabolic health levels.
Image credit: Driveline Baseball
Apple has also been adding heart rate detection, women's menstrual management and even fall detection on the Apple Watch in recent years, with the goal of becoming the largest aggregation of user health information; Google's acquisition of Fitbit will use the large amount of health data it has to develop new products; Amazon launched a smart bracelet Halo to monitor heart rate and body fat, and also analyze emotions...
Deloitte predicts that global consumer health and fitness equipment shipments will reach 320 million this year, and this figure will reach 440 million by 2024, and strong hardware and software support will increase awareness of self-health, which is also quite helpful in accelerating overall medical screening and care efficiency.
03
Mental health: no longer a trivial matter
In the pre-epidemic era, mental health diagnosis and treatment seems to belong to a minority, after a year of isolation, anxiety and trauma in 2020, in 2021, people will not only stop talking about "psychological" discoloration, we can see many companies that provide overall health solutions increase their mental health, such as Omada Health or Doctor on Demand, but also see more companies focusing on mental health mushrooming.
Rock Health's data shows that startups in the mental health sector will raise $5.1 billion in 2021, nearly double the $2.7 billion in 2020, and the industry generally believes that more money will flow to companies specializing in this area in the future than the overall health category.
Image credit: Rock Health
For example, Ginger, an on-demand mental health service that has completed a $220 million financing, users can get 24/7 customized care programs, and when they encounter stressful moments, they can connect with their own counselors to solve problems in seconds, while traditional models patients have to wait about three or four weeks to get a meeting with a counselor or psychiatrist, and there are a series of clinically certified resources on the platform such as how to decompress, how to adapt to the epidemic life, how to get quality sleep, etc. to help users self-counsel In August last year, Headspace and Ginger merged, and the new company was valued at $3 billion.
Image source: Ginger
There are also many companies that are targeting specific groups of people, such as Wave, founded by Stanford psychology professor Sarah Adler, to create interactive solutions for teens to analyze emotions in a play mode and reduce anxiety and depression. Little Otter, which just completed a $22 million funding earlier this year, offers individual and holistic care for families from a child's perspective, with data showing that 85% of families see improvements in child performance and family relationships within 6 sessions
Image credit: Little Otter
Psychological problems related to addictions such as alcohol, nicotine, and drugs are also being systematically addressed and are no longer contraindicated areas, with Quit genius, which completed a $64 million Series B round last year to help quit smoking through cognitive behavioral therapy, providing interactive exercises, smoking cessation coaches, and monitoring equipment, with a success rate of 53 percent; and Lucid, who completed the $16 million A round Lane provides individual and group counseling and pain counseling programs for opioid-addicted patients; and NOCD, which has completed 33 million B rounds, provides counseling and care services for OCD patients...
Companies that address addiction in a digital health model raised $793 million in the first three quarters of 2021, four times more than in 2018.
Image credit: Techcrunch
Employers also find that employees' mental health has a great impact on work, so they are more willing to pay for employee psychological counseling services, including meditation software such as Calm and Headspace have launched enterprise version of the paid program, and headversity, which just completed a $10 million financing earlier this year, helps companies provide mental health training technology for employees, using AI technology to guide employees through daily self-assessment and training, thereby improving the overall performance of the company.
There is also Spring Health, which has completed more than $290 million financing, for small businesses, to provide accurate mental health services for employees, such as employee A's problem is occupational fatigue, employee B is anxiety, employee C is a problem of feelings, traditional HR can not provide meticulous help, and Spring Health uses AI technology to let employees just fill out questionnaires, you can get accurate from the beginning to find the most suitable solution for themselves and work towards their own unique mental health goals.
Image credit: Spring Health
Nearly 800 million people (equivalent to 11% of the population) worldwide have mental health problems, but the number of people seeking help is in the minority, and the good news is that society's stereotypes about mental health problems are being broken, and the public has more options for helping, as multiple digital mental health companies join the unicorn club, the track begins to saturate, we will see more and more solutions for specific populations and complex behavioral cognition, and these companies will also rely more on clinical and scientific results to prove their competitive advantage.
An average of 23 digital health companies exited by merger or consolidation each month in 2021, compared to an average of 12 per month in 2020; while a total of 23 digital health companies went public, almost triple in 2020; and the medical community was more receptive to using real data and reducing clinical trials as a result of COVID-19, with health technology companies helping biopharmaceuticals and medical technologies accelerate research and development receiving an all-time high of $5.8 billion in investment Digital products that support disease recovery have seen a 2.6-fold increase in investment in the past year...
It can be said that 2021 is a bumper year for health technology, and the industry predicts that in 2022 we will see the continued growth momentum and enthusiasm of companies in this field.
The public is becoming more and more receptive to digital health, the survey shows that 73% of users who currently use telemedicine said that the use of this method of treatment will only increase, and about 80% of the healthcare providers surveyed said they will continue to provide cloud care solutions; from an investment perspective, this area shows 45% of new investors, repeated investors account for 55% of health, and technology giants frequently make acquisitions and investments in this area.
Rock Health analysis, the health care field policy, data infrastructure and consumer acceptance of the change will pave the way for 2022, on the one hand, more and more health technology solutions will seek FDA recognition to achieve popularity, on the other hand, as the traditional medical care model is broken, consumer participation and trust will become the focus of competition in this field of companies, the pace of evolution of the healthcare industry will only go faster and faster. Investors and entrepreneurs will do everything in their power to drive innovation and prove the added value of their products, which is even more worth looking forward to for the general public.
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