Task Force Health Care (TFHC) has been working for three decades on improving healthcare worldwide, by connecting the right people and organisations. This began with a first public-private partnership in India, before expanding across the globe. One of the countries where this approach has taken root is the United States, home to one of the world’s largest healthcare markets. Here, Task Force Health Care brings together Dutch businesses, knowledge institutions and local governments to help Dutch healthcare innovations enter the Texan and Californian markets.
Shared challenges, shared opportunities
In 2014, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health concluded that the Netherlands was a global leader in healthcare. The Dutch ecosystem builder found that there was considerable international demand for Dutch healthcare innovations, but that such innovations needed support in finding their way abroad. Together with representatives from the public and private sectors, Task Force Health Care developed an international strategy for the Dutch life sciences & health (LSH) sector. In 2015, the strategy was presented to the Minister of Health, Welfare, and Sport (VWS). The plan identified three priority countries – one of them the United States, a country facing many of the same challenges as the Netherlands and offering significant opportunities for collaboration.
A comparison between the Dutch and US healthcare systems reveals a striking number of similarities. Both countries face the challenge of providing accessible, affordable, high-quality care for everyone. At the same time, both are increasingly dealing with an ageing population, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and the consequences of unhealthy lifestyles. And in both countries, healthcare costs are rising while the shortage of healthcare professionals grows.
Those rising costs force the American healthcare system – with the highest healthcare expenditure in the world – to double down on innovation. And that is precisely where the opportunities lie for Dutch companies. The Netherlands is a frontrunner in e-health, medtech and integrated care solutions. “Because we face the same health challenges, the Dutch innovations are a natural fit for the American healthcare landscape. That makes knowledge exchange very welcome. On top of that, it’s a huge market, with a strong investment appetite, a healthy commercial mindset and a faster route to market than Europe,” says Daphne Elberse, Program Manager at Task Force Health Care.
From international strategy to program
The United States was marked as a priority country in the international strategy to help Dutch life sciences and health companies access the market. In 2016, Task Force Health Care began developing a dedicated programme of activities. This work gained further momentum when, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, a project manager was appointed.
TFHC identified the Dutch companies that were interested in entering the US market and brought clarity to the fragmented landscape of joint Dutch American LSH activities, working towards a single shared agenda. The goal: creating synergy among stakeholders. By joining forces and presenting a clear and consistent message from the Netherlands to the United States, Dutch organisations would be in a stronger position to gain market access.
A roadmap to market access
In the years that followed, TFHC’s efforts culminated in 2021 in a roadmap, drawn up together with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the Dutch diplomatic network. The roadmap identified Texas and California as the two states offering the greatest potential for productive collaboration, thanks to their strong medtech and digital health clusters, and existing partnerships with the Texas Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai.
By that time, the collaboration took place on the highest political level, with the economic diplomacy of the Ministry of VWS playing an important role. The VWS attaché in Washington was one of the driving forces behind the roadmap and in September 2022, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima, accompanied by VWS Minister Kuipers, paid a working visit to California and Texas.
The linking pin between public and private
The roadmap paved the way for the launch of a strategic multi-year market development programme (SMM): a three-year initiative in which Dutch companies collectively pursue access to the American market for trade and knowledge exchange. RVO acts as the public partner, TFHC as the private coordinator. “We operate as genuine partners in this collaboration, both putting our shoulders to the wheel, “says Elberse. “TFHC maps the needs of the sector and gives Dutch companies access to the programme. We have an extensive network of private companies, as well as knowledge institutions and NGOs, all of whom have something to gain and something to contribute. That means we know what is going on, where the opportunities lie and how to draw up coherent delegations for visits to the US. TFHC is the linking pin between public and private. “
As a private coordinator, TFHC ensures a coherent programme of activities that meets the sector’s needs and improves the likelihood of successful market entry. Elberse: “Each year we organise two trade missions to California and Texas, along with an incoming visit during which we welcome US stakeholders to the Netherlands. We also organise activities around HLTH Europe and a range of other events, like knowledge sessions on FDA approval or pitch training. It’s a logical set of activities on both sides of the Atlantic, with each one reinforcing the other.”
A BioBridge from the Netherlands to Texas
The 2023 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Health Holland and the Texas Medical Center (TMC) was a major milestone in the partnership between the Netherlands and the US. The document lists TFHC as performing party. “It was a declaration of intent to collaborate on knowledge exchange in digital health, medtech and biotech. The ultimate goal is a TMC Netherlands BioBridge Cohort: a cluster of Dutch companies taking part in the acceleration programme, building a bridge between the Netherlands and Texas for knowledge, innovation, exchange and making innovations market-ready,” says Elberse.
Driving the partnership beyond a statement of intent, Invest International agreed to sponsor the first cohort. “We are incredibly proud that, three years on, a delegation of twelve Dutch companies is actually heading to TMC to take part in the acceleration programme,” says Elberse. “Over a seven-month period, they will receive intensive guidance and support to help them enter the US market. This gives them access to more than 60 medical institutions located on the TMC campus in Houston.”
First contracts signed, first offices opened
The impact of the SMM and BioBridge is becoming ever more tangible. Several companies have gained concrete momentum and leads at the organisations they visited during trade missions. The smooth public-private collaboration has been a key factor in this progress. “This is where we are at our best: we connect an extraordinary number of stakeholders within the SMM, from private to public, and from the Netherlands to the US,” says Elberse. “TFHC’s active role in bringing the ecosystem together keeps everyone aligned, ensures strong communication and allows us to work towards the same goal. That is something we are very proud of.”
Over the next eighteen months, TFHC will continue building new partnerships and connections between the United States and the Netherlands within the SMM. The mission of improving healthcare worldwide by connecting the right people runs through every part of this work. Elberse: “We want to tackle the same health challenges as the US. It’s our role to connect people and make that happen.”
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