OREANDA-NEWS. GE Healthcare has taken a 20% stake in global venture management company Pilot Lite Ventures (PLV), expanding its consulting business as it seeks to tap into an estimated $28 billion global market in unexploited healthcare and wellness R&D, orphaned IP and early-stage technology.

GE Healthcare Partners currently offers analytics-based consulting solutions to health and social care organisations, to design strategy, formulate improvements and achieve measurable results and outcomes. With this deal, GE will expand the services it offers to corporate clients in the life sciences and health and wellness sectors.

PLV, headquartered in London, works internationally with major corporates to validate, launch and commercialize new ventures, stranded IP, products and services. Clients include international corporates and brands from the FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 as well as the public sector.  Financial terms were not disclosed. GE has the option to increase its stake at a later date.

In major corporates, R&D projects are frequently started but not completed for strategic reasons, lack of capital allocation or changes in corporate focus.  PLV specializes in translating these early-stage innovations into commercially realizable products and investable portfolios for corporate clients and investors.

John Deverill, Managing Partner at GE Healthcare Partners said: “Big evolving markets like healthcare have big evolving problems. Pilot Lite has a proven, systemic approach to commercializing IP and innovation, including putting specialist teams on the ground to manage new or previously-retired commercial ventures for major corporates. Adding this unique solution set to our offering will enable us to better meet our clients’ needs and to differentiate GE Healthcare Partners from traditional consultancy models.”

Mike Anstey, CEO of PLV said: “GE Healthcare will be a valuable partner for us as we further develop our strategic capabilities within Europe and globally, as well as accelerating and leveraging the growth of our ground-breaking Venture Management offer. Corporates increasingly want to know not what to do but how to deliver it.  Our eight stage Venture Management process de-risks the initial ‘white space’ origination of IP and then accelerates its journey to market as well as into new business models.  Venture Management delivers accelerated market penetration and first revenues, not more paperwork and strategy.”

About GE Healthcare:

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services to meet the demand for increased access, enhanced quality and more affordable healthcare around the world.  GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter - great people and technologies taking on tough challenges. From medical imaging, software & IT, patient monitoring and diagnostics to drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies and performance improvement solutions, GE Healthcare helps medical professionals deliver great healthcare to their patients. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.  

As the management consulting arm of GE Healthcare, Partners is a diverse team of consultants with a passion to help leading organizations manage the interdependencies between cost, quality and access. As an activation partner for clients, Partners collaborates to design strategy, formulate improvements and achieve measurable results and outcomes – implemented to change the way care is delivered. Working side by side with clients, Partners brings together advisory services, advanced analytics, and a world-renowned approach to individual and group change acceleration. By thoroughly transferring critical tools and methods, Partners enables clients to preserve and advance improvements in the long-term.