Baird Global Healthcare Report 2016-2017 Global Healthcare Report | Page 13
when the products are tested in humans relative to what is
seen on the laboratory bench or in animal studies. One particular
advantage for anti-infective devices and therapeutics is the higher
success rate for these products in clinical studies, given the
higher correlation of microbial kill in vitro when studied in vivo.
In addition, for certain areas of infection prevention, the time
needed for follow-up can be quite short, significantly decreasing
the overall length of a clinical study.
STRATEGIC INTEREST
While the infection prevention and control space is very
broad with a lot of room for improvement, business innovation
does not truly happen until investment dollars are behind it.
Infection prevention has been a key area of focus among
strategics that are increasingly focused on delivering complete
care – moving beyond a single device or diagnostic toward
building a total package of services around those pieces to
deliver better care. They are looking for complete product
offerings and being a full healthcare solution provider. The
number of strategics focused on infection prevention is also
larger than in other typical business sectors.
This shifting dynamic piques our investment interest and
has pushed us to ask a number of fundamental questions: Is
there a clear and addressable clinical need? Is there potential
to make this a platform technology? Does the business model
for the new solution fit seamlessly into what the company
currently does? Is the solution the same price or lower than
what people are using today?
Looking ahead, we see a tremendous opportunity within the
infection prevention and control space, especially in diagnostics.
While it continues to be challenging to develop solutions in real
time on major outbreaks like the flu or more recently Zika, we
believe there are strong opportunities for predictive analytics.
Imagine leveraging data to know when a person enters the
emergency room door that he or she is likely 50 percent of the
way to sepsis. We believe that type of data is something that
could very meaningfully impact the course of care and save lives.
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