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

Amgen, Pfizer and Takeda hold court in the first-ever Nordic Big Pharma Reverse Pitching Event. Hosted virtually on 15 September, 2021, the event comes free of charge for the participants.

The Reverse Pitching Event is sponsored by Amgen, Pfizer and Takeda and organized by Health Capital Helsinki in collaboration with HealthTech Nordic and Health Founders from Estonia.

In the event, there will be an exclusive opportunity for startups, scaleups, researchers and pharma industry to get introduced and initiate collaboration, explains Director Juha Paakkola from Health Capital Helsinki.

– Startups don’t always understand how Big Pharma works, but there is tremendous potential inherent in collaboration, once the two sides get acquainted. This is an effective meeting platform for Big Pharma and startups to explore synergies in depth, Paakkola says.

The event kicks off with 10-minute reverse pitches by the sponsoring pharma companies: in the pitches, they present their offering and special innovation needs. After the presentations, there’s time for Q&A and panel discussion before pre-booked one-on-one meetings with the pharma companies.

Register for the event

Developing Health & Wellbeing is a mutual target

Niilo Färkkilä, Country Director, Finland and Baltics, at Amgen says that building versatile networks is essential for all Big Pharma companies today.

– We want to strengthen our collaboration base with startups. The Finnish Health & Wellbeing startups possess a vast range of ideas and expertise that hold also export potential, Färkkilä says.

Hannes Toivanen, Strategic Partnerships Lead at Takeda, comments that developing the Finnish Health & Wellbeing ecosystem is a common target for companies both big and small.

Startups don’t always understand how Big Pharma works, but there is tremendous potential inherent in collaboration, once the two sides get acquainted.

– We are looking for startups to innovate with us, with a special focus on Nordic Deep Tech companies. In the event, we want to talk about our current needs and the value of partnership as we perceive it, says Toivanen.

Deb Mangone, Country Director at Pfizer, says that she’s excited about meeting innovative growth companies in a setting that differs from the norm.

– We want to talk with the startups to find out just how we can support them. Elevating the level of industry innovation in Finland is a big priority for us, Mangone says.

Keksi Agency / City of Helsinki

“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.”

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.