Healthcare Investment Banking refers to services when bankers advise companies in the biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare service/facility, and healthcare IT markets on mergers, acquisitions, and debt and equity capital issuances. Under its investment banking services, banks/institutions categorise healthcare as one industry and the healthcare team execute all types of transactions (M&A, debt, equity, and more).
Investment banking analysts, Equity research analysts and Venture capitalist fund analysts focussed on the healthcare sector is an opportunity which is emerging in a big way in banks and financial institutions. For students with a life-science background, these are therefore, non-traditional career paths.
Equity research analysts monitor a set of companies within a given industry, speak with institutional investors and management teams, create and update financial models, and write equity research reports. Teams that concentrate on healthcare industry related companies are referred to as healthcare equity research analysts.
Venture capitalists (VCs) raise capital from Limited Partners, such as pension funds, endowments, and family offices, and then invest in early-stage, high-growth-potential companies in exchange for equity (i.e., ownership in the companies). Then, they aim to grow these companies and eventually exit via acquisitions or initial public offerings (IPOs). As one would imagine, Healthcare VCs specifically invest in healthcare industry related companies / projects from their fund.
While all the above roles can generally be done by non-healthcare background individuals, having knowledge of the industry and its functioning as well as the basic life sciences background is a big advantage for such roles. However, gaining an entry into such functions will need additional skill sets and higher educational qualifications. Additionally, one needs to be very strong in their analytical, mathematical and research skills with a passion for deal-making and negotiations.
