2023-05-26 13:53:00
Before developing a sector strategy, you need to know where you are starting from and whether the game is worth the effort. The Occitanie Region is playing several cards and betting in particular on that of digital health. This is why its economic development agency, Ad’Occ, has initiated a process to diagnose the positioning of the various players in the sector’s value chain in Occitania.
“The regional innovation strategy is structured around eight major priority areas, including health, and this study aims to characterize the maturity of the digital health sector in the region and to establish a map of regional players, in order to write, by next autumn, the accompanying roadmap for the development of this sector, confirms Pierre Benaim, Secretary General Regional Innovation Strategy Occitanie and Deputy Director Innovation at Ad’Occ. The idea is to work on the issues and the prospects. We already know that some digital health players are poorly or poorly supported, particularly with regard to financing or economic models which are complex in this sector. There are therefore still barriers that companies alone will find difficult to overcome… This study allows us to assess the potential: how many players, what percentage of their activities on digital health, what level of maturity of companies , by sector, by product, etc. »
239 digital health companies
The Occitanie region can already rely on a solid health ecosystem* (680 health companies, 80% of which are SMEs and eight groups with strong international notoriety such as Pierre Fabre, Horiba or Sanofi, 19,000 jobs) and a sector dynamic digital* (3,600 companies, 64,000 jobs and a cumulative turnover of more than 8 billion euros).
The region can also rely on the Eurobiomed competitiveness cluster, on many academic players (the universities of Toulouse, Montpellier and Nîmes, the LIRMM in Montpellier, the Champollion University Institute in Albi, etc.), players in the clinical research (CHU, Pasteur clinic, Gérontopôle, etc.), research players (CEA or Institut Saint-Exupéry) or the Mediterranean Institute for Longevity Professions (I2ML).
The scope of the study, carried out by Care Insight (consulting firm specializing in the transformation of health through innovation and digital health), takes into account the activities of e-health, telehealth, telemedicine, robotics, m- health (mobile-health), silver tech, cybersecurity or data.
It identifies 239 digital health companies – “ is more than we imagined, comments Pierre Benaim – including 92.5% of SMEs (212 SMEs, 14 ETI, 3 GE), a third who are less than four years old and 50.44% who have fewer than ten employees.
The study reports a “recent dynamic of business creation which is accelerating over the last four years” in three market segments: “clinical tools-business software” (17.5%, i.e. around fifty companies), “management-administrative-steering tools” (11.25%, i.e. just over 30 companies) and “data/data processing” (10%, i.e. around twenty companies). 59% of them say they integrate artificial intelligence into their technological solutions.
A mapping of digital health companies has just been established in Occitanie, on the initiative of the Ad’Occ agency.
Metropolitan tropism
Unsurprisingly, the majority of digital health companies are located in one of the two regional cities, Montpellier and Toulouse: 42.29% are in Hérault, 38.77% in Haute-Garonne, “ but we also note a certain dynamic around Nîmes, where there is a CHU and the I2ML (6.61% of digital health companies in the Gard, Ed.), and Castres where the e-Health Universities are held each year at the end of June (4.41% in the Tarn, editor’s note) », emphasizes Pierre Benaim.
Regarding the products offered by regional companies, more than 30% offer software, 15% robots or connected devices, and around 14% digital platforms. Services and applications follow. The majority are intended for decision support, support services and internal management (invoicing, logistics, HR, etc.).
Occitanie can boast of the presence of a few major groups partially involved in health, such as Orange, Dassault Systèmes, IBM or Atos, as well as ETIs in digital health: Zimmer Biomet, Berger Levrault, Almerys, Siemers Healthineers, Abylsen, MindMaze, etc.
Regarding the number of jobs represented by the digital health sector, “difficult to know, because some companies have only part of their activity on digital health”, replies Pierre Benaim, who cautiously advances the figure of “ a few thousand »…
“We lack a regional locomotive”
The summary of needs carried out during the study reveals four main areas: strategic support, access to the market and the link with health establishments, support on financing and improvement of attractiveness, ” which is no surprise, observes Pierre Benaim.
The study also assesses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for the Occitan digital health sector.
” THE assets show that we have significant potential, with a substantial industrial fabric, dynamic cities, calls for expressions of interest won at national level, universities and research, summarizes Pierre Benaim. On the side of the weaknesses, we lack a regional locomotive: we do not have an Airbus of digital health! »
The report also mentions the Montpellier/Toulouse duality” but Pierre Benaim moderates the observation : « The term “duality” is not the right one, even if there are still obstacles to be lifted between the two metropolises, improvements to be made on the avenues of collaboration and on the links between the two ecosystems… We have already done this work on biotherapies because there were great international experts both in Toulouse and Montpellier, and today, a complementarity has been set up”.
Among the threats are the youth of the sector, the significant need for funds to finance start-ups, the governance and animation of the sector to be put in place, but also the indirect competition exerted by the digital sector and aeronautics: ” There are great tensions on employment today, and highly developed sectors that are more attractive can pose a threat to the staff of digital health companies. It is an issue”.
In competition with New Aquitaine
Other non-negligible competition: foreign competition and the strong attractiveness of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. Moreover, a benchmark of the three other regions of France (Ile-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Grand Est) positioned on digital health was carried out. It emphasizes in particular that the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region has supported the development of telemedicine and the establishment of innovative services or organizations to fight against medical deserts.
“Yes, we can talk about competition in terms of attractiveness, in particular to bring in foreign companies, concedes Pierre Benaim. New Aquitaine started working on the subject before us, and digital health is a historical sector for this region, in which they have invested a lot. The objective is also to draw inspiration from what works. »
Two scenarios complete the Care Insight study. The first, called ” generalist “, recommended ” an approach to the global sector covering all business segments of the value chain”, and the second, called “specialist”« the identification of segments and actors to carry out a proactive strategy”.
« In the first, we structure a sector and we support all the segments, and in the second, we choose a segment on which we are strong and we focus on it, for example AI in health, deciphers Pierre Benaim. But it could be a mix of the two… We are going to invite the whole ecosystem again to arbitrate on a scenario by the end of the year, to say how and with what means… We are sure the starting line, with the idea of writing the roadmap by the end of 2023.”
* According to figures from the Occitanie Region.
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