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Hello,
Happy New Year! Welcome back to Insider Healthcare, your daily dose of news from the Business Insider healthcare team.
I hope you all had a restful end to the year. It seems like the news cycle didn’t slow down all that much over the holidays, so let’s jump in to the biggest stories to start 2021.
For starters, vaccine rollout has started slower than expected. About 20 million Americans were expected to get vaccinated by the end of the year. That didn’t happen, with only a fraction receiving shots by December 31. Even so, Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday said he’s optimistic the pace could soon pick up.
Also in healthcare news: Biotech investor Brad Loncar shared his 2021 predictions with us, investors are betting big on mental health, and why Alphabet and Amazon are set up to make healthcare deals in 2021.
Brad Loncar
Biotech investor Brad Loncar shares 10 predictions for 2021, including a more than 30% drop for gene-editing stocks, a $3 billion acquisition by Vertex, and a new big threat to society
- Biotech investor Brad Loncar foresees a bustling 2021 for the drug industry, filled with M&A, drug pricing debates, and booms and busts in the market.
- The CEO of Loncar Investments shared 10 predictions for the new year with Business Insider.
- They include a coming downturn for gene-editing biotech stocks, SPACs fizzling out, and anti-aging science becoming the next overhyped hot topic.
Read the full list of predictions as told to Andrew Dunn here>>
Investors are betting billions of dollars that Silicon Valley can upend mental healthcare in America
- Among the coronavirus pandemic, large-scale social unrest, and a grueling election cycle, Americans' mental health is taxed at best and crumbling at worst.
- The grueling circumstances of the past year have led to a boom in demand for mental health services. With most therapists' offices closed, however, much of that activity has been entirely virtual.
- Mental health startups that provide virtual services, scheduling platforms, or software that allows individual practitioners to accept insurance have all benefited from the pandemic, and have raked in nearly $1.5 billion from VC investors since the start of the year.
- Many investors told Business Insider that mental health will soon be one of the biggest areas of investment for their firms.
Read the full story from Megan Hernbroth here>>
Here's why investors think Amazon and Alphabet are poised to make big healthcare deals in 2021
- After the Teladoc-Livongo merger that shook up the digital health world, many investors are looking outside the industry for its next major deal.
- Tech giants like Amazon and Alphabet are the most likely buyers, investors told Business Insider.
- That's especially true of Amazon, which rolled out its pharmacy service years after acquiring mail-order prescriptions company PillPack.
- Both companies have signaled interest in expanding their healthcare offerings in recent months and after a year of record public returns, could have enough cash on hand to buy up hot upstarts instead of building products or software from scratch.
Read the full story from Megan Hernbroth here>>
More stories we're reading:
- 3 doctors who received the Pfizer vaccine discuss their side effects and why they chose to get vaccinated (Business Insider)
- How COVID-19 disproportionately impacted a generation of young Black men (ProPublica)
- ICYMI: Google Health lost 2 top executives and another is moving internally as employees say the group is struggling to focus (Business Insider)
- 42 people received antibody treatments instead of COVID-19 vaccines (WDTV)
- ICYMI: DNA testing startup 23andMe is quietly raising $85 million in equity funding led by Sequoia and NewView Capital (Business Insider)
By this point, typically I'm curious how you all are preparing for the annual JPMorgan healthcare conference. Without flights and massively inflated hotel costs ahead of us, how are you preparing? Let me know at [email protected]. And you can reach the entire team at [email protected].
- Lydia