GSK Next, the innovation arm of pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)’s Consumer Healthcare business, is setting up a startup studio called Re/Wire Health Studio alongside venture capital firm R/GA Ventures.
The studio is being set up as a platform to discover, incubate and scale healthcare-focused companies, particularly as it relates to diagnostic solutions. Its main focus areas will include oral health, women’s health and mental resilience.
Applications are being sought from early and growth-stage companies around the world whose technologies could disrupt consumer healthcare markets. Six will ultimately be chosen to take part in the process.
R/GA Ventures will be responsible for the operation of the studio, which will look to identify opportunities to team up with GSK and benefit from market access and other resources to scale on a global level.
The successful applicants will be selected in October 2021, with a nine-week programme beginning the following month and running through January 2022.
Nick Tate, vice-president at GlaxoSmithKline and head of GSK Next said: “If there is one thing the pandemic has taught us, it is that amazing solutions happen with the right collaborative spark.
“We are seeing huge disruption and partnership opportunities in the consumer health space and we are excited about fusing the trusted science and scale of GSK Consumer Healthcare with brilliant new thinkers and makers across everyday health.”
