How Investments are Shaping the Future of Healthcare
“In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity”, said Albert Einstein. The German-born physicist was right, especially when it comes to the healthcare industry!
The healthcare sector has unquestionably gone through two tough years worldwide, locally, regionally, and globally. Yet, the entire industry still has every prospect of success — now and in the future. Music to everyone's ears across the industry, isn’t it?
So, what did the 2 lean years of COVID-19 look like, and, more importantly, what lies next?
Covid-19 & The Hard Times
For more than years, Coronavirus wreaked havoc in the healthcare systems of almost every country across the globe, developing and developed alike.
The pandemic exposed the weaknesses in almost all healthcare schemes around the world. It has ruined many economies and instigated first-time challenges to healthcare across the globe. Worse, COVID-19 had a devastating impact on the diagnosis and treatment of other diseases, with social distancing and lockdowns reducing diagnosis rates of infectious such diseases as seasonal influenza; and even in diagnosed cases, treatment for diseases such as cancer had to be postponed in many cases due to the immediate threat of coronavirus consuming the resources of health systems. Furthermore, other serious diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, were temporarily ignored despite still being very dangerous, especially in more vulnerable populations.
However, though COVID-19 has killed more than 6 million people worldwide, the 2-year affliction has taught the world many lessons and created a lot of hope for the global healthcare industry. Let’s dive deeper.
Investors & Global Healthcare Sector
If there’re any major lessons to be learned from COVID-19’s impact on the global healthcare sector, the two most important ones are that the horizon is currently carrying great expectations for the healthcare sector and that investors should be racing smartly to take advantage of the rising technological innovations in the healthcare industry to make profits as well as sustainably develop and transform the entire industry.
With this in mind, let’s take a look at 2 major areas of opportunity that investors should watch.
First – Biotech
Given the multiple COVID-19 vaccines that have already been rolled out across the globe over the past 2 years, it’s commonsensical to expect that further attention will be paid in the immediate future to Messenger RNA (mRNA) applications.
It’s now assumed that mRNA — a type of single-stranded RNA involved in protein synthesis, which helps the human genome which is coded in DNA to be read by the cellular machinery — will be used in the area of hard-to-treat and rare “orphan" diseases, of which there are roughly 10,000 but comparably few treatments. Furthermore, better use of data and analytics is greatly improving drug discovery. Overall, it’s now becoming important to invest, over the upcoming years, in new treatments for cancer, neurology, and gene-based therapies.
Second - Genomics
Genomics has been gaining new steam lately thanks to advances in computing power and machine learning. This development is providing a new area of opportunity for investing in genomics as a new positive driver for the healthcare industry, potentially drawing more funding from governments and private investors alike.
With this in mind, and given that investments — FDI and FPI alike — are becoming the new name of the game when it comes to the healthcare industry, a logical question is poised to pop up about the “Where” of this investment, or, to put it differently: What are the regions that already are, or are expected to become, the prime destinations for healthcare regionally and globally?
Abu Dhabi | Healthcare Investment Destination
One of the most important lessons that have been globally learned from the Coronavirus pandemic is how “political will” protects the people of each country from diseases and plagues in general. And here comes a vital question: Why is Abu Dhabi rapidly evolving into a global destination for healthcare investments? Or, in other words, why should investors come quickly to invest in the emirate’s healthcare sector? Here are the 3 major reasons.
First – Talent Matters!
Abu Dhabi is one of the cities that pay great attention to attracting talent in the healthcare sector. Last year, the emirate gave the Golden Visa to over 500 doctors recognizing their exceptional efforts in Abu Dhabi’s healthcare sector. Plus, Abu Dhabi constantly invests in medical talent that has an innovative and technologically- advanced outlook toward ideation.
As for startups, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Health always provides support to start-ups in various fields that focus on delivering the latest technologies in the healthcare sector.
Second - Strong Economy with Global rankings
Now Abu Dhabi has 3 of the biggest sovereign wealth funds worldwide, with 60% of the UAE’s investable wealth. Also, the emirate is one of the world’s top 30 economies globally, ranked the smartest city in the MENA region and the first in MENA and 12th globally on the parameter of ease of doing business. Furthermore, Abu Dhabi has been chosen as the first city in MENA to introduce mandatory insurance, one of the top 10 cities in the global medical tourism index, and second in the GCC region. Moreover, the emirate has been named one of the safest cities across the globe and voted the happiest city in the Arab world.
Third - Primacy of life sciences
Abu Dhabi has exerted great efforts, over the past years, to become a regional life science hub, adopting the latest developing and innovative programs in the areas of healthcare crisis response, life sciences, digital health, precise personalized medicine, genomics, and healthcare data, among many other fields in addition to participating in several clinical trials and life sciences research.
Notably, the healthcare industry is one of a wide range of vital economic sectors that the 12th edition of the Annual Investment Meeting, AIM 2023, will bring investors, governments, experts, and others under one roof to discuss their potential, challenges, and outlook.
