To bring a new drug to market, the FDA requires pharmaceutical firms to perform expensive and time-consuming studies to demonstrate safety and efficacy. Hundreds of potential treatments can fall by the wayside without financial help. Private equity investments have supported treatments for life-threatening conditions, such as Leukemia, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, HIV, and breast cancer, and for several debilitating conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and ulcerative colitis.
Giving Doctors, Nurses, and Hospitals the Resources to Treat Patients
Providing first class care to patients is a full-time job. Private equity investment allows for health care providers to spend more time caring for patients and less time on administrative responsibilities, like burdensome paperwork and insurance claims negotiations.
Higher Employment Ratio
Private equity-backed hospitals employ a higher ratio of doctors, nurses, and pharmacists compared to their non-private equity counterparts, according to research from Indiana and Georgetown Universities.
More Time with Patients
Private equity-backed doctors and nurses spend more time with their patients according to research from Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Oregon.
Improved Quality of Care
Private equity can “improve quality of care because physicians no longer need to focus on running a business” according to a report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission(MedPAC).
Investing in Medical Technologies
that Improve Lives
$280B
invested by private equity across more than 1,800 life sciences and medical device companies in the U.S.
$36B
invested to support life sciences and medical device companies during the pandemic.
900+
medical device and supply companies have been supported by private equity firms in the last 10.
Why is Private Equity Investing in Health Care?
Private equity provides health care companies with access to capital markets, lines of credit, pools of managerial skills, and experience in turnarounds. This critical investment lets doctors, nurses, and other health care providers focus on treating patients instead of running the back-room business operations and help life sciences and medical device manufactures bring innovative treatments to patients.
Supporting Nursing Homes During COVID-19 and Difficult Economic Times
Private equity is investing in nursing homes to improve their financial well-being and their quality of care at a time when skilled nursing homes accepting Medicare patients are facing reduced federal support.
– A study from the University of California, Los Angeles and Duke University found that private equity-owned nursing homes fared far better under COVID-19 than non-private equity-backed homes, with lower rates of cases and deaths.
– An October 2020 study from Weill Cornell Medical College found “no statistically significant differences” in staffing levels between private equity-owned nursing homes and other ownership types.