Role reversal: Big Pharma to pitch to startups in new event

Healthcare breakthroughs are achieved in collaboration

Amgen, Pfizer and Takeda are participating in the event, since they believe that promoting the cause of the industry takes precedence over the business interests of a single company. Färkkilä, Toivanen and Mangone all agree that here is a great chance to do something that can give the entire sector a boost.

– Healthcare as a whole is our common challenge: what can we do together in order to secure the next wave of responsible innovation, Niilo Färkkilä says, adding that Health & Wellbeing is definitely a growth sector for the future.

Lowering the threshold between Big Pharma companies and startups is key:

– Big Pharma can appear a bit faceless, so we’re hoping this event will help us to interact and engage more effortlessly with startups, says Hannes Toivanen.

Deb Mangone agrees that startups may find it difficult to relate to Big Pharma – especially if the startup’s innovation is not quite “fully baked” yet.

– Sometimes the industry connection is less obvious, but we want to become that important stakeholder and thought partner for startups that can help them go forward. Transformative breakthroughs are mostly achieved as collaborations, she points out.

In early September, already 200 people from 120 startups have registered for the event. Juha Paakkola says that the opportunity to gain insight into the mindset of not one, but three Big Pharma players, is clearly an attractive one from the perspective of the startups.

– Health tech in Finland and in the Nordics is now entering a super exciting phase – and we feel that our event supports this evolution perfectly, Paakkola says, adding that Health Capital Helsinki, as the organizer, wants to host Nordic Big Pharma Reverse Pitching Event every year from now on.