An uptick in positive clinical data reported in recent months has helped nudge the BioWorld Biopharmaceutical Index (BBI) to its highest point this year. BBI is up by 15.58%, significantly higher than the 1.36% increase recorded at the end of August, just as statistically significant clinical results began to roll in from a number of biopharma companies.
Easy access to financing, talent, and connection to sizable potential markets are Hong Kong’s advantages to develop the health care robotics industry, according to speakers at the Asia Summit on Global Health.
The number of biopharma deals with nonprofit or government entities has dwindled in recent months, while industry grants are climbing. Combined, however, a total of 936 bio/nonprofit deals and grants worth $11.17 billion is down by 37% in comparison with last year’s $17.8 billion and by 58.7% in comparison with 2020’s $27 billion. The volume also is down significantly by 16.8% from 2021 and by 33.4% from 2020.
A large notes offering this month and a pick-up in public raises have boosted med-tech financings, which are now tracking similarly with 2019. So far this year, the med-tech industry has raised $35.7 billion through 457 transactions. The amount raised is down by 23% in comparison with the same time frame in 2021, although a few months ago that gap was 48%. The current volume is down by 25.4%.
Med tech firms are becoming quite familiar with the world of digital health in recent years, but this has often been a pairing of strange bedfellows at best up to now. A new report by Accenture on industry adoption of digital health lays out some of the reasons for that, but some impediments come from government, such as the lag in development of regulatory policies for artificial intelligence (AI) and software as a medical device (SaMD).