Editor's note: Local Tech Wire asked Grace Whi-Tze Ueng to discuss the proceedings at the Council for Entrepreneurial Development's recent biotech form. Ueng, founder and chief executive officer of Savvy Marketing Group, moderated the panel.
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. - A record-breaking crowd of over 225 people kicked off CED's 2006-2007 Biotech Forum series by attending a discussion on "The Impact of Globalization in Healthcare" earlier this month.
A lengthy waiting list was accommodated through an overflow seating theatre validating the strong interest in the Triangle on this topic. The event was co-hosted by CED and the North Carolina Chinese Business Association (NCCBA) with corporate sponsorship from IBM.
Panelists included Victor Dzau, MD, Chancellor for Health Affairs, Duke University and president and chief executive officer of the Duke University Health System; Art Pappas, managing partner of Pappas Ventures; Dan Pelino, general manager of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences Industry; and John Ratliff, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Quintiles Transnational.
These experts raised eight key points:
6. Globalization Of Healthcare Has Unleashed Business Opportunities In The U.S. - Dzau cited the partnership between Singapore Medical School and Duke which has a budget north of $40 million. The legal infrastructure in both India and even more so in China leave a lot of room for discomfort for U.S. counterparts who want their IP protected in partnering with these developing countries. This brings opportunity to the legal sector to help accelerate healthcare globalization -- a definite contending track for our 2007 Triangle Globalization Conference.
7. Global Reimbursement Challenges -- Socialized medicine versus employer sponsored -- what will rule? I asked the question of how new (and presumably) better therapies will be paid for as they are introduced into areas of the world that have not traditionally had these options. Dzau brought up the fact that 45 million people in the U.S. are uninsured and urged that we examine the issue as individuals "who have human rights versus commodities in healthcare". He predicted that perhaps a two tiered system would arise. Pelino added: "Healthcare is becoming an integration play, especially how the payer and provider work together--we're starting to see a new era around patient-centric solutions in healthcare". Early data already shows that banks are coming into the healthcare reimbursement scene to come to the rescue including in our region, Bank of America.
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