Note: Activities refer to initiatives by the above companies across industries under SPEEDA Edge’s Health & Wellness and Pharma & Life Sciences verticals

Source: SPEEDA Edge research

Key takeaways

• Health systems turned to Big Tech to harness the powers of GenAI. During the quarter, health systems entered partnerships with Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon to leverage their GenAI solutions for more efficient and personalized healthcare delivery. These solutions focused on automating complex tasks in R&D and clinical operations and enhancing capabilities around patient engagement.

• Healthcare continued to be tough for retail giants. Following its exit from the virtual care market with the sale of MeMD in Q2 2024, Walmart shifted its focus toward the specialty pharmacy sector where its core strengths lie. Meanwhile, Walgreens was also facing financial pressure in the healthcare space and was reportedly contemplating selling its stake in VillageMD, among other restructuring options.

• Apple announced significant advancements in health technology, addressing widespread health issues like sleep apnea and hearing loss. During the quarter, the company introduced sleep apnea detection features on its latest Apple Watch models: Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2. In addition, it introduced a hearing health feature for its AirPods Pro 2 to offer the first all-in-one hearing health experience, featuring a clinically validated hearing test and an over-the-counter hearing aid capability for users with mild to moderate hearing loss. Both features were granted FDA approval during the quarter.

• Q3 2024 activity remained fairly consistent compared with the previous quarter (32 activities tracked in Q3 2024 vs. 31 in Q2 2024): Big Tech continued to dominate proceedings, accounting for the highest share of activities tracked during the quarter (81% of all activities tracked). However, retailers showed a slight improvement, raising their share of activity to 18% in Q3 2024, up from 13% in Q2 2024.

• Despite a decrease, Alphabet remained the leader in healthcare activity: The tech giant accounted for 31% of all Big Tech activities and 25% of all healthcare activities tracked during the quarter (compared with 44% of all Big Tech activity and 38% of all healthcare activity during Q2 2024). Its focus on primary care continued, with most of its activities concentrated in this area. While activity around Hospital Management was the most prominent, efforts were made to venture into other areas such as Preventive Healthcare and Healthcare Resourcing Platforms. In addition, its interest in pharma automation was also notable during this quarter, with several activities targeting the AI Drug Discovery and Clinical Trial Technology industries.

• Investment activity slowed down (five in Q3 2024 vs. seven in Q2 2024). During the quarter, Alphabet was the most active Big Tech player in terms of investments in the healthcare domain. Among retailers, ever-present CVS Health was joined by Walgreens to channel investments into the healthcare space. Investments supporting initiatives around Hospital Management took center stage during the quarter.

• Overall focus witnessed a shift from R&D toward healthcare delivery and management. Recently, the healthcare sector saw a surge in AI innovations, mainly backed by initiatives of Big Tech companies. As such, most of the activities tracked during the quarter aimed to harness AI to improve patient experience. Nevertheless, there was also a focus on R&D.

Number of activities by company during Q3 2024