UK Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock has encouraged health start-ups to join a brand new health acceleration programme being run by pharmaceutical company Novartis and O2’s innovation arm, Wayra UK. The initiative will offer the brightest healthcare disruptors an opportunity to scale their businesses while being supported by industry experts.
‘The Health Hub’ is a nine-month intense programme working closely with founders to help them develop their cutting-edge solutions in the healthcare ecosystem. It will focus on how health tech can be used to drastically innovate long-term disease management by using practical solutions that can contribute to the quality of the healthcare in the UK.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “I want the UK to be the best place in the world for health tech start-ups and, through our Long Term Plan and Tech Vision, we are transforming the NHS into an ecosystem of innovation to allow the best technologies to flourish. It is great to see Novartis and Wayra UK launching the Health Hub acceleration scheme to help innovators scale their business.”
The Head of Market Access Strategy at Novartis, Fiona Bride said: “The opportunity to join The Health Hub is immense. The collaboration between Wayra and Novartis really is one of finding people with a suitable passion that will help us find innovative ideas that will challenge the thinking in healthcare and find disruptive solutions that mean that more patients will get better care.”
Wayra UK has raised over $180 million through third party investors for its start-ups with some of the most successful being Our Path – a lifestyle change programme that raised £2.5 million, Repositive who have built the world’s largest inventory of cancer models and secured £3.3 million as well as JK Rowling’s favourite sleep app Pzizz.
Gary Stewart Director of Wayra UK said: “There is no bigger problem than health. We are eager to work with Novartis to support clever entrepreneurs that will find the solutions that will help our loved ones and ourselves all live longer, healthier lives.”
By bringing together industry expertise, mentors, coaches and investors The Health Hub is putting innovation at the core of what we do. Healthcare impacts everyone and we want to help people make better choices with better options. The Heath Hub will reimagine medicine and healthcare like never before.
