The life science field is poised to drive transformative change and address head-on some of healthcare’s most challenging and complex problems — from those that vastly improve lives, to those that outright save them. According to Ron Bauer, the Founder of Theseus Capital, a principal investor and family office investment vehicle focused on the life sciences and technology sectors, here are three exciting life sciences trends to watch in 2020 and beyond.
- Precision Medicine
Perhaps the most exciting trend in the life sciences field is the emergence of precision medicine (also known as personalized medicine). As the label suggests, precision medicine is an approach that leverages knowledge of each individual patient’s genetic make-up and phenotypic determinants, to prescribe customized treatment regiments and drugs that have the highest chance of being effective.
Commented Ron Bauer, whose firm Theseus Capital works closely with top scientists and entrepreneurs, and has long standing relationships with leading law, accounting, institutional brokerage, and investment banking firms: There are numerous potential applications for precision medicine, and among the most promising is in the oncology space. Scientists now understand that people with the same type of cancer may nevertheless experience different kinds of genetic changes. They also grasp that different types of cancer may exhibit the same or similar cancer-causing changes. While there is still much to learn, precision medicine promises to generate unprecedented insights that can help patients based on a genetic understanding of their cancer.
- Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in the life sciences isn’t new. However, what is emerging and will doubtlessly transform the field in the years and decades to come is the manner in which these types of technologies will streamline, accelerate, and elevate drug development, new product research, regulatory information management (RIM), clinical trials, electronic health records (EHRs), and disease diagnosis.
According to Ron Bauer, biopharma and biotech companies are amassing an enormous amount of data. The strategic and practical application of artificial intelligence and machine learning will play a crucial role in parsing, organizing and optimizing this information, and turning it into what matters most: actionable, reliable business and clinical intelligence that supports better, faster, and safer decision-making.
- Increased Collaboration
Effective and progressive collaboration has been an essential driving and guiding feature of the life sciences field for decades. However, now and in the years ahead, the level of engagement will reach a significantly higher level as organizations realize that working together and integrating knowledge capital is not just a matter of sustained business success. Rather, it is a question of long-term survival given the rapid velocity of change, and the massive costs and risks of independently bringing new products to market.
As pointed out by Deloitte, a major factor that will continue to drive effective collaboration is secure cloud computing, which enables biopharma and biotech teams and leaders to connect and find synergies. Cloud computing also helps bring smaller firms, academic institutions, and research laboratories to the virtual table so they can make a critical contribution without facing unsustainable or prohibitive cost constraints.
Looking Ahead
Nobody can predict what the future will hold. Yet it is a safe bet that when the curtain closes on 2020, the trends above highlighted by Ron Bauer will have profoundly shaped the life sciences field in ways we can imagine, and in ways that we cannot.
