Healthcare will be shaped for the foreseeable future by fundamental changes in six categories:

• Demand for healthcare services is rising rapidly, spurring cost-containment moves by payers and governmental agencies. This will only increase in the face of an aging global population, an upsurge in chronic diseases and increasingly expensive therapies.
• The traditional big pharma model is in decline, as the pipeline for traditional small-molecule drugs slows. One result: a rise in high-growth businesses based on both generics and medical devices, along with a convergence of treatments administered by a combination of drugs and devices.
• Clinical outcomes, not improvements, are becoming the standard of value. Driven by payers and employers wanting better results for their money, as well as governmental programs based on generic treatment categories, the trend is toward more effective disease-management programs.
• Biopharmaceutical companies are challenging traditional pharma, creating a number of high-margin sub-sectors in biotherapeutics. Providers of these protein-based treatments have targeted such expanding sectors as respiratory diseases and diabetes.
• Global markets have emerged in services, including the outsourcing of strategic functions to contract research organizations and contract manufacturers.
• The managed health care battlefield between doctors focused on quality and payers focused on cost has expanded to include the highly activist consumer involved in decisions around treatment and coverage. The Internet enables increased involvement in decision making for consumers and increases the price pressures felt throughout the sector.

Bain's Healthcare experience

Bain has conducted more than 1,200 healthcare cases across sub-sectors as well as geographies. We have worked with providers (hospitals and physicians),  payers (insurance companies and HMOs), manufacturers (pharmaceutical and biotech companies) and distributors (sellers of medical equipment and supplies). Our projects encompass corporate strategies, growth strategies, mergers and acquisitions, customer and loyalty management, and sales/channel management. We help clients manage R&D, enter new markets and improve operations. We've worked with for-profit, nonprofit, government and academic organizations around the globe.

To find out more about our work in this industry, please contact Bain's Healthcare practice.