More recently an area that ’ s become exciting is nanomedicine , which is the manipulation of molecules and structures on an atomic scale . Microbiomics , which is the study of the microbiome and microorganisms in our digestive system , is also becoming quite compelling . Meanwhile , specialty pharmaceutical companies are exploring new drug delivery systems , such as microscopic particles called microspheres , and other ways to introduce drugs to the body versus injection .
This is just a small sample of the subsectors driving investment and advancement in the space .
BILL SUDDATH Advances in technology are definitely catalyzing deal activity and , as mentioned earlier , bringing nontraditional buyers into the industry . A notable example is IBM . Through their Watson machine-learning initiatives and investments , they are ( in part ) trying to build a very large healthcare data set , and then effectively feed Watson and create applications on the back end .
Thermo Fisher has acquired several companies to accomplish this – most recently Affymetrix , and in a very significant transaction several years ago , Life Technologies . Another example is Merck KGaA , a large German conglomerate , which acquired U . S . -based Sigma-Aldrich late last year .
MANISH GUPTA MedTech companies are also turning to M & A , but with greater designs on creating sophisticated medical solutions . We ’ re seeing MedTech companies acquiring technology companies and vice versa to create converged solutions that treat complex medical problems while reducing the overall burden to the healthcare system . A few examples of this include St . Jude Medical ’ s acquisition of CardioMEMS to develop a new treatment paradigm for heart failure , Covidien ’ s acquisition of Zephyr to develop remote patient monitoring solutions for cardiac and respiratory problems , and Jawbone ’ s acquisition of Spectros for noninvasive monitoring of pulse oximetry and detection of perfusion and ischemia .
We are also seeing interest from companies looking to buy into Healthcare and build more of a vertical market strategy . But for the IBMs coming into the market , there have been others who have attempted to build vertical market strategies only to realize the Healthcare market behaves differently than perhaps their core enterprise markets .
Additionally , we ’ re seeing equally robust private equity and growth equity interest in Healthcare IT and Tech-Enabled Services . Several very thoughtful private equity groups have done or are doing build-ups of capabilities around some of these themes .
RYAN MAUSEHUND On the Life Sciences side , there has been quite a bit of consolidation with several of the big consumable suppliers seeking greater penetration with researchers , academic researchers , Biopharma and the like .
To a large extent , when we look at what ’ s driving advances in the Biotech space , it ’ s looking for different ways to cure diseases . This has implications for everything from perception to diagnosis to treatment .
5