Changing market dynamics are placing pressure on Swiss laboratories to rethink their go-to-market strategy. Our PwC healthcare experts Philip Sommer and Frederik Haubitz, and Deals Strategy expert Felix Schalt, advise laboratories and professional investors on how to grow their top and bottom line by adding real value for their customers
Changing market dynamics for Swiss laboratories
- The Swiss laboratory market used to be a high-margin business, with few changes to its fixed tariff structures in the past. Growth was largely driven by volume and customer acquisition was comparably straightforward.
- After a consolidation trend and the prohibition of various acquisition tools, few large competitors remain. This has increased competitive pressure on the traditional growth formula.
- With the regulator expected to adjust tariff structures significantly downwards in due course, prices and thus margins are forecast to decline accordingly.
- Moreover, initial signs suggest that the highly fragmented outpatient customer base will consolidate in the future, with new, unprecedented market participants entering, resulting in decreased bargaining power for laboratories. This development looks set to be further supported by an emerging outpatient trend, with an increasing number of tests done in laboratories performed in medical practices.
- This may mean that the laboratory industry needs to integrate further with its practice customers, potentially shifting its value proposition from a pure diagnostics provider.
Key to future growth is targeted customer acquisition
- Top-line growth is driven by number of customers (practices) and the number of patients and tests per patient attached to these. The bottom line is driven by the test mix of these patients and the operational setup of the laboratory.
- Generating future growth will therefore only be possible by attracting the right customers with a tailored offering. With traditional incentive structures unsuitable in future and potentially under legal pressure, laboratories will need to get creative to add real value for their customers.
PwC is experienced in advising laboratories on adding new value for their customers
With an interdisciplinary approach combining strategy, healthcare and legal professionals, we advise laboratories and professional investors on how to grow their top and bottom line by adding real value for their customers.
Successful Deals with PwC
Doctors and laboratory specialists, together with the investment firm GENUI, acquired labor team w ag, one of the leading private medical laboratories in Switzerland.
