Research and development (R+D) as we know it is coming to an end. Large companies are rethinking their strategies about it. Of course, new product design and development is still a crucial factor in the survival of a healthcare company. In an industry that is so fast changing such as healthcare, companies must continually revise their design and range of products to remain competitive.

In the last years there have been tremendous efforts done by large companies in healthcare, spending enormous amounts of money, willing to keep pace with the increasing speed of innovation. And they found out, simply, that to keep pace is impossible. In today’s healthcare environment, where everybody, large and small, is innovating heavily, success becomes something very elusive. There is always someone outside who can come up with a better product or service. And more importantly, innovations are becoming more and more disruptive every year, overturning the existing dominant technology or status quo product in the healthcare market in a blink.

The solution to this: research and acquire (R+A). Don’t spend all the money in your own pipeline of innovation, just keep an eye on the market, find innovative start-ups and buy them. All of a sudden, innovation inside big companies flourishes again.

This is good news to entrepreneurs and venture capital, because it certainly creates value for the entrepreneur, and it provides an exit strategy for the investor. We are going to see more and more of this trend in the next years.