Enabling healthcare’s digital future

Debiopharm Innovation Fund’s Tanja Dowe on investing in digital health start-ups and supporting them on their rollercoaster rides to improve patient outcomes

The weight of expectation hangs heavy over the digital health sector. Even before COVID-19 struck, shattering established societal and healthcare norms, much was expected from start-ups that could combine health and tech.

Now, with the pandemic’s acute phase beginning to recede, the rapid gains digital health start-ups were making pre-COVID have become ever more important as new and better ways are sought to improve patient outcomes in a hugely changed environment.

Someone with a keen eye for health, tech and investment trends is Tanja Dowe. A biochemical and microbiology engineer by training, she’s headed up the Debiopharm Innovation Fund since 2016, prior to which she spent 15 years as a strategy and transaction consultant in the life sciences.

Although a start-up’s long-term vision will always come from the entrepreneurs behind it, the challenges that founders face can come thick and fast as they navigate both financing options and operating risk.

• Read the full article in pharmaphorum's Deep Dive digital magazine