As of 2017, consumer expenditures on healthcare comprised a total of 63% of all healthcare expenses. This amounts to a total of $2 trillion spent on hospital care, clinic services and retail prescription drugs. These services represent a form of repeated healthcare where patients have to continuously move in and out of hospitals for chronic conditions that haven’t been cured yet.
Compared to this, only $159 billions is spent on research and development to develop cures for these conditions. Clearly the economic and financial burdens of healthcare have surpassed the amounts that are being invested back in to the system which gives rise to a major cash inflow-outflow imbalance. As such, conditions like the Celiac disease— which affects nearly 3 million people in the United States— are left untreated because we haven’t developed cures for these, many of these conditions haven’t even been diagnosed yet.
This imbalance needs to be addressed if we are to make progress towards developing cures for the condition an eliminating these health burdens associated with chronic genetic conditions—an imbalance that only private investors can meet.
Why the Private Sector: New Impact Investing Opportunities on the Horizon
In the aftermath of the 2007 global recession, investment markets have fared brilliantly throughout the world. Globally renowned research firm McKinsey pointed out that asset values for all funds under management grew up to $5 trillion in 2017.
These huge volumes of investment point to lucrative opportunities that are definitely bringing in money to encourage interested parties to continue investing. It follows from this that investment companies, equity funds and venture capitalists are making a fair bit of profit from the exercise.
Considering the growth in the valuation of investment markets and the returns being made on these investments, it’s entirely possible that private investments meet the investment gaps in medical research. In terms of Corporate Social Responsibilities, this is an area that these companies and funds can look towards in an attempt to resolve global health concerns.
Kenworthy Capital: A New Entrant on The Scene
With these conditions in mind, we have recently launched an initiative to help spur on research efforts for the autoimmune diseases. Kenworthy Capital, is co-opting early impact investment strategies to ensure that we can play a much more significant role in mitigating climate change and enhancing current understanding of autoimmune diseases.
As a testament to our commitment to the cause, we have vowed to donate a percentage from our share of Kenworthy Capital returns to Celiac Disease research. In addition to this, we have also been an active part of working with Beyond Celiac, an organization committed to eradicating the celiac disease and to organize the Celiac 5K walks. The walks are intended to raise funds for Beyond Celiac’s research efforts and to raise awareness about the disease.
Kenworthy Capital is an early-impact investment fund founded by us, Inger and Randal Kenworthy. We have initiated this fund in the hopes that we can make an impact through financial contributions to climate change prevention and autoimmune diseases research. We are now accepting additional investment groups. Get in touch with us today at our website to learn about how to invest and about our investment strategy.