Strong position in a changing, growing Life Science market

The long‑term effects of the pandemic are still evident in Europe, where waiting lists have continued to grow and recovery is slow. Some countries have taken measures such as increased funding and staffing to reduce the treatment backlog, including a greater openness to new technologies and expanded use of private care providers and digital visits.

An increased number of surgical procedures will be needed over a long period. Through its broad portfolio and strong service offering in elective surgery, AddLife has actively contributed to reducing the patient waiting lists. New technology enables shorter procedures, reduced staffing requirements and shorter post‑operative care. AddLife’s decentralised business model and proximity to customers have made flexible sales possible, allowing the group to gain market share from competitors.

Interest in circular business models is growing, particularly in the assistive devices sector, where products that can be refurbished and reused are increasingly in demand. While this can reduce some new sales, it also creates room for new business models.

AddLife is supporting and driving this development by offering services such as maintenance, refurbishment and sterilisation of assistive devices in Ireland, as well as rental of equipment to hospitals and private homes. AddLife is actively exploring opportunities to broaden its range of reusable products and to develop new, circular business models.

Demographic trends, rising healthcare costs, staff shortages and changing preferences are driving the trend for older people with care needs to remain in their homes for longer. To make this possible, home adaptations and assistive devices are needed, as well as increased use of digital solutions.

AddLife contributes by offering welfare technology in several Nordic markets, including innovative solutions such as Hepro’s “Nattugla” (Night Owl), a digital monitoring service that uses anonymisation functions and AI for continuous learning and prevention.

Market expansion is being driven by technological advances that facilitate the development of more advanced, specific, rapid and cost‑efficient test methods. One example is precision medicine, where genetic tests identify a specific genetic marker to determine which treatment will be most effective for an individual patient. Another example is rapid tests for increasingly widespread antibiotic resistance.

AddLife is actively contributing to this development by offering products, advice and services in advanced diagnostics. AddLife also plays an important role in supporting the transition of new technologies from research use to clinical diagnostics. In recent years, collaborations with existing suppliers have been expanded to new markets, for example in areas such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) in gene technology and diagnostics for sepsis.

The pandemic years have accelerated the development of smaller and easier‑to‑use diagnostic instruments that maintain laboratory‑level quality at lower cost and with higher availability. These instruments, which are often used in Point‑of‑Care settings, are now reaching new customer groups such as hospital wards and pharmacies. Demand has also increased for multi‑parameter instruments that enable multiple tests from a single sample.

AddLife has established itself as an expert in this area, with successful partnerships in, among other places, Sweden, Norway and Finland, and continues to explore new opportunities to meet customer needs.

The increased pace of growth in drug development has led to greater demand for outsourcing, particularly among smaller, innovative biotech companies that rely on external service and analysis providers. This has resulted in an expansion of both existing and new services in this area.

AddLife currently offers extensive application support and development of analytical methods to this customer segment and is continuously evaluating new opportunities to further develop its service offering.

An increasing share of non‑European suppliers in the research segment are offering non‑exclusive distribution agreements. This is driving a growing share of digital sales, both from manufacturers selling directly to customers and from distributors operating across multiple geographic markets.

AddLife has several companies with offerings in this area, where the majority of sales are conducted digitally. Additional companies in the Group are evaluating opportunities to expand these services within their respective customer groups and segments.