By Michael Oberreiter
At the 2025 B7 meeting in Ottawa, economic resilience was top of the agenda - and for good reason. Ageing populations, rising healthcare costs, and slowing productivity are putting growing pressure on economies across the G7. Medical innovation offers a way forward, but only if supported by consistent, long-term policy frameworks. This is an economic issue as much as it is about health policy.
These pressures aren’t new. As far back as 1820, philosopher Herbert Spencer warned that the ageing of populations could carry profound economic consequences. Today, that concern is no longer theoretical. Non-communicable diseases are responsible for approximately 74% of all deaths worldwide1. Projections indicate that by 2054, the number of individuals aged 65 and older will reach 1.7 billion. By 2074, this demographic is expected to comprise 20.7% of the global population2.
Many of us will live longer, but will not necessarily be healthier, placing sustained strain on health systems and public finances.
The economic burden is already significant. Chronic illness is one of the leading causes of lost productivity, with the cost of a few major conditions projected to rise sharply in the next decade. But it’s not just healthcare systems under strain: economies suffer as more people leave the workforce early, cut back hours, or take on informal care responsibilities.
Innovation can shift this trend. Over the past century, improved population health has driven roughly a third of economic growth in developed countries. Advances in medicine have added years to life, reduced care needs, and enabled longer, more productive working lives. With the right support from policymakers, future innovation could save millions of lives and inject trillions into global GDP3.
But breakthroughs require investment and, importantly, predictability. The process to develop new medicines takes over a decade, with significant uncertainty over what research will succeed. Most of the funding for this R&D comes from the private sector, which depends on stable incentives and systems ready to adopt new solutions. Without that foundation, progress falters.
To realise the full socioeconomic benefits of innovation, governments must establish the right policies, protections, and systems to support the life sciences sector. Specifically, they should:
Protect and promote intellectual property, incentivise R&D and ensure unconditional access to pathogens and genetic resources for the development of innovative medicines.
Drive rapid, broad, and sustainable patient access to innovative medicines by recognising and rewarding the societal and economic value of innovation in health technology assessments (HTA) and reimbursement decisions and eliminate market access barriers.
Prioritise investments in sustainable healthcare systems that are ready to adopt medical innovations, and improve prevention, screening, and diagnosis to optimise patient outcomes and maximise healthcare investment impact.
Too often, healthcare is treated as a budget line to control. In reality, it’s one of the strongest levers we have to strengthen economies and build resilience. As the B7 rightly recognised, acting on that insight is now urgent.
Michael Oberreiter is the Head of External Affairs International (EAI) at Roche, based in Basel. An economist by training, Michael also holds a master's degree in International Politics and Communications. He brings over 25 years of experience in health policy, patient access, capacity building, and health economics. His career spans various therapeutic areas and countries, including Austria, Germany, China, and the Asia Pacific (APAC) region. In these roles, he has driven the development of sustainable policy, access, and system capacity solutions to strengthen healthcare systems and improve access to innovative treatments.
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