J.P. Morgan Targets a $11.9T Global Healthcare Market

Grab a slice, large caps are targeting healthcare.

What's happening: Last month, J.P. Morgan launched a new life sciences venture capital team targeting investments in both early and growth-stage healthcare companies.

• According to J.P. Morgan, the team will help grow private companies and tap into significant pre-IPO opportunities in the consumer technology and life sciences sectors.

• Dr. Stephen Squinto, entrepreneur and biotechnology veteran, was hired as their chief investment officer and managing partner.

• When asked what specific domains the firm is targeting, Squinto neglected to specify but hinted at genetic medicine, autoimmune disease, and obesity.

Why it matters: As society trends toward more disease and illness, big tech companies are deploying capital to target a global healthcare industry estimated to be worth $11.9T.

• Amazon purchased primary care provider One Medical for $3.9B and recently launched Amazon Clinic, a virtual healthcare service for common conditions like allergies, hair loss, and acne.

• Apple's HealthKit API package powers thousands of health and fitness apps, enabling interoperability across the healthcare sector. Not to mention, the company's Watch product is worn by over 100M users every day, giving Apple access to an invaluable set of biometrics.

• Google Ventures – a VC firm now partnered with Alphabet – oversees more than $8B in assets and views healthcare as a vital component of their investing strategy.

Looking ahead: Whether these investments improve health outcomes or solely make corporate giants more profitable remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, we are trending toward more disease and illness as a society, and any means to reverse course is worth noting.