Photo Credit: Freepik
On 25 Oct 2021, AstraZeneca’s A.Catalyst Network hosted its second Slush event, ‘Better Together? Evaluating Big Pharma’s societal value’, exploring how non-traditional partnerships can drive innovation and improve patient experiences.
The virtual event brought together industry-spanning innovators to discuss how the health landscape is changing, why diverse patient-enabled insights are driving enhanced solutions and how finding the right fit within partnerships supports the significant ability to scale. Key highlights included:
A key speaker at the event was Eugene Hong, Executive Director, Institutional Banking Group, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals at DBS Bank, who brought a unique perspective on how non-traditional partnerships can benefit the healthcare industry and drive opportunities for digital transformation.
Aleksandr Bedenkov, VP Medical International at AstraZeneca, said “One of the key aspects of effective innovation is thinking outside of the box in order to look at a problem from a different perspective. This principle can be applied to partnerships as well – some of the most impactful collaborations have stemmed from non-traditional partnerships and yesterday’s session showed exactly what can be learnt to help improve health experiences if we look beyond our own industry.”
The A.Catalyst Network aims to bring together diverse stakeholders across industry and geographical boundaries to address healthcare challenges through innovation and partnerships. The digital activations, which AstraZeneca is holding in collaboration with Slush, highlight how and why its A.Catalyst Network is looking to support startups, tech innovators and founders in achieving their goals of developing biomedical solutions to improve outcomes for patients.
"The event highlighted how valuable overcoming obstacles by stepping outside of your comfort zone with an unconventional partnership can be.” said Miika Huttunen, CEO, Slush, “Some may view Slush’s collaboration with AstraZeneca as non-traditional, but by joining forces to bring together startups from a range of industries as well as healthcare innovators, we have been able to make true progress towards better patient outcomes. We hope that others have been inspired to close the cross-sector gap and come together to reach a common goal".
AstraZeneca & Slush upcoming collaboration will be at Slush 2021: The World Leading Start-Up Event, which will bring together founders, investors, executives, and at Helsinki Expo and Convention Center, on 1-2 December.
