AIC forum to exchange best practices for innovation activities in the APAC MedTech space
- co11ab
- innovation, APACMed, medtech
- April 28, 2023
Innovation leaders sharing their corporate learnings and best practices in the innovation space.
*Image credit – APACMed
In today’s climate, multinational medtech companies increasingly rely on external innovation to achieve growth, yet often, especially in the Asia Pacific, are challenged by resourcing for such activities. In the APACMed Innovation Community (AIC) forum co-organized with co11ab on 28 April, APACMed led a series of discussions, addressing key issues include complex internal structures and decision-making, limited awareness about innovation deal flow, and how to ultimately define mutual value for all prospective parties involved.
A keynote presentation on the “Build vs. Buy” concept, led by Stephen Sunderland, Partner, Head of SE Asia Healthcare and Life Sciences, L.E.K., reflected on how in reality, accelerating innovation in the Asia Pacific is not such a binary concept. In this segment, Stephen highlighted the importance of understanding the deal structures of innovation partnerships, to achieve specific objectives and satisfy ambitions of investors as well as investees.
Ashley Wittorf, Head of Business Development, Johnson & Johnson MedTech, Pei Ling Liang, APAC Innovation and Partnering Manager, Roche Diagnostics, Amy Lee, Principal External Partnership Specialist APAC, MedTronic and Terence Tan, Business Development Manager, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Amazon Web Services, reflected on the learnings and challenges in corporate innovation practices, and how we can best harness these innovation opportunities that comes along in the region.
Thereafter, we heard from the other side of the table, with panellist speakers from various stages of the MedTech ecosystem, Phin Peng Lee, Deputy Program Director, Singapore Biodesign, Yen Choo, Executive Director, co11ab, Lynne Lim, CEO, NousQ, and Willy Koh, CEO, Racer Technology. They brought in unique perspectives from their various standpoints to open up an insightful conversation about their challenges faced and how the MedTech industry as a whole, can collectively join forces to accelerate innovation.
*Article reference from APACMed