Marc Ceulemans from Novartis and Jack Young of Qualcomm spoke about digital health and the formation of Fund of the Year DRX Capital.
Marc Sluijs, president of Health Tech Summit, spoke to Jack Young, senior director of Qualcomm Ventures, and Marc Ceulemans, head of strategic venture capital fund – pharma equities at pharmaceutical firm Novartis, about the future of digital health and technology, at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium today.
Young and Ceulemans discussed how the DRX Capital fund was forged by wireless technology producer Qualcomm and pharmaceutical firm Novartis. DRX Capital, which won Fund of the Year at the GCV Awards last night, was conceived around six months ago, said Ceulemans.
Novartis wanted to pursue new applications and developments in medicine, but did not have the engineering skills.
By a similar token, Qualcomm has been involved in digital health for 10 years and picked some early winners, such as health and fitness tracker company Fitbit, but as Young said: “Many companies which started as consumer health have become more clinical, going more towards digital medicine.”
The collaboration with Novartis takes Qualcomm in that higher direction, Young said, predicting: “It should yield some interesting investments.”
The $100m fund, which could yet have more firepower, is expected to be invested in between eight and 10 deals over the next two years. It will focus on three areas, including pills, and how to wrap them with digital diagnostics. According to Young, 150 possible deals have been sourced so far, with two announcements expected soon.
The US Food and Drug Administration is a factor in slowing down investments, Young said, adding: “But as it gets more comfortable, the process gets more streamlined.”
“This is a DNA change for us,” said Ceulemans, who described the fund as an open platform that is open to collaboration – conversations on the subject are being had with Merck.
“We don’t want it to benefit just us,” he said, “but the whole pharmaceutical industry.”
This article first appeared in our sister publication, Global Corporate Venturing.
