Analysis
The Silver Economy opens up new export markets for health
Switzerland Global Enterprise
Jul 23, 2026
For Swiss life science companies, the best opportunities lie where aging societies are confronted with more chronic diseases, labor shortages, and rising costs. The demand is not simply for products for the elderly, but for solutions that extend independence and make scarce care capacity more effective.
The global aging trend is well known. Yet its economic significance is often underestimated or reduced to consumer goods for a wealthy 65-plus generation. For the life-science industry, the greater opportunity lies elsewhere: healthcare systems must care for more people with multiple chronic conditions, even as staff, beds, and financial resources are scarce.
The United Nations expects that by the mid-2030s, there will be 265 million people worldwide who are at least 80 years old. This would be the first time that there are more people in that age group than infants under one year old. By the end of the 2070s, the number of people aged 65 and over is projected to rise to 2.2 billion. At the same time, non-communicable diseases accounted for 75% of global deaths in 2021. Cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes are therefore increasingly shaping the demand for technologies and therapies.
For Swiss providers, this is not a single market, but a new demand structure. It favors precise diagnostics, minimally invasive interventions, user-friendly dosage forms, mobility solutions, rehabilitation, and digital systems for home care. It is not only the age of the users that is important. What matters is whether a solution prevents hospitalizations, relieves the burden on specialists, or enables older people to live independently for longer.
Four bottlenecks create real demand
1. Care is shifting from the hospital to the home
Many healthcare systems want to treat older people in expensive acute care settings only when it is clinically necessary. This creates demand for connected blood pressure, heart rhythm, glucose, and respiratory monitors; point-of-care diagnostics; telecare; medication management; and home therapy devices.
Singapore is a good example of how concrete this change is. By 2030, more than a quarter of the population is expected to be over 65. According to the U.S. International Trade Administration, national healthcare spending could rise to around $44 billion by then. At the same time, care will be more focused on the home and outpatient settings. The agency cites telemedicine, telecare, artificial intelligence, remote monitoring, prevention, and integrated care as growth areas. More than 80% of local demand for medical technology is met by imports. For a Swiss provider, Singapore can therefore be both a market and a clinical reference site, as well as a starting point for Southeast Asia.
However, the export opportunity is rarely in the sensor alone. Hospitals and payers are increasingly procuring complete care solutions: equipment, software, alarm management, clinical workflow, training, and value demonstration. A single blood pressure monitor is easily replaceable. A validated system that detects deterioration early and only escalates clinically relevant cases to a nurse is much harder to replace.
2. Staff shortages make productivity a clinical performance issue
In aging societies, not only is the number of patients increasing, but a significant portion of the healthcare workforce is also approaching retirement. Therefore, technology should not primarily be used to replace personnel, but rather to make their limited time more effective.
This creates opportunities for automated sample processing, AI-driven image analysis, clinical decision support, robotic rehabilitation, digital triage, and documentation systems. Solutions that reduce routine work without creating additional interfaces, alarms, or documentation requirements are particularly attractive.
Japan is an important reference market for this. Almost 30% of the population is at least 65 years old. The country combines a high medical standard with a severe shortage of labor. This makes products that make care, diagnostics and rehabilitation more scalable interesting for Swiss medtech and digital health companies. Starting to export to Japan remains challenging. Foreign manufacturers must go through the process via a Japanese marketing authorization holder or a designated Japanese manufacturer. The Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency reviews products that require approval, while the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare makes the final decision on approval. A distribution partner alone does not necessarily cover these regulatory and operational tasks. A combination of a clinical reference center, a regulatory partner and a service and integration company is more promising.
3. Multimorbidity requires systems rather than individual products
Older patients often live with multiple conditions. They take multiple medications, are treated by multiple specialties, and are particularly vulnerable to medication errors or gaps in care. This increases the value of solutions that integrate information and support treatment decisions.
For pharmaceutical companies, this expands the offering beyond the drug itself. Potential components include pre-filled injection systems, adherence and reminder solutions, biomarkers for therapy monitoring, and remote monitoring of side effects. For diagnostics companies, opportunities arise in panels and decentralized tests that accelerate clinical decision-making. Medtech providers can connect implants or surgical systems with platforms for post-operative care.
Switzerland has an unusually dense value chain in this area. Companies such as Roche in diagnostics, Sonova in hearing solutions, and Ypsomed in self-injection systems demonstrate that Swiss expertise can address several bottlenecks in aging healthcare systems. For smaller companies, the opportunity often lies not in copying these giants, but in offering specialized components, algorithms, biomarkers, or therapeutic building blocks that can be integrated into existing platforms.
4. Prevention becomes economical when it prevents an expensive event
“Healthy aging” sounds appealing, but as a selling point, it is too vague. Funders are more likely to finance prevention if it reduces a measurable risk, such as a fall, stroke, decompensation, hospital readmission, or premature entry into a nursing home.
This makes previously underestimated areas export-relevant. These include early detection of atrial fibrillation, continuous blood pressure monitoring, fall risk analysis, tests to assess muscle strength and mobility, hearing screening, cognitive tests, and nutritional interventions. The common denominator is a clearly defined clinical and health economic endpoint.
A Swiss digital health company should not therefore go to market with “AI for healthy aging.” A more compelling statement would be: “Our solution identifies patients with heart failure at high risk of decompensation early enough that the care team can intervene.” Such a hypothesis can be tested in a pilot study, prepared for a reimbursement decision, and justified to hospital management.
Where starting to export is particularly worthwhile
Not every country with a large aging population is automatically a good export market. Five factors are key: the number of affected patients, affordability, reimbursement, access to clinical partners, and regulatory burden.
For many Swiss companies, Germany is a natural first step. It is Europe’s largest healthcare market, geographically close and particularly relevant because of its aging population. Opportunities exist in outpatient care, care relief, rehabilitation, diagnostics and digital applications. However, a CE marking enables market access, but does not create demand or reimbursement. Companies must clarify early on who pays, which care path is affected and what evidence the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss (GBA), health insurers, service providers or procurement agencies expect, depending on the product and access route.
The US offers the greatest commercial scaling potential, particularly in chronic disease, home monitoring, diagnostics, and specialized medical technology products. However, the market is not a unified system. Approval, coding, reimbursement, and distribution access are separate tasks. For digital providers, it may make more sense to work with a healthcare provider or senior care provider first, rather than selling nationwide to insurers right away. A narrowly defined use case with proven reductions in readmission rates can be more valuable than a technically broader platform.
Japan is one of the most demanding reference markets for Silver Economy solutions. Products must be reliable, space-saving, and intuitive. User interfaces, packaging, training, and customer service require local adaptation. Those who overcome this hurdle can gain a strong reference for other Asian markets.
Several Gulf states are investing in new care capacity and digital health infrastructure. Opportunities exist in specialized clinics, diagnostics, rehabilitation, home care, and integrated digital products. Public or state-affiliated health groups are often key customers. This can enable larger reference projects, but requires local relationships, tender expertise, and reliable service. A distributor without access to the actual decision-makers creates little value.
Five considerations for starting exporting
The Silver Economy is less a separate product category than a look at specific care needs. Five considerations can be helpful for starting to export.
First, it is worth translating the demographic trend into a specific, funded care problem. The proportion of older people alone says little about the market potential. Equally important are the potential buyers, such as hospitals, payers, care organizations, patients, pharmacies, or health ministries, as well as the budgets from which a solution can be financed.
Second, local evidence can facilitate market access. A study conducted in Switzerland provides important data on safety and performance. For reimbursement decisions abroad, additional insights into local workflows, costs, and utilization may be relevant. Pilot projects become more informative when they capture not only technical function but also effects on care time, adherence, or adverse events dates.
Thirdly, everyday usability deserves special attention. Small fonts, complicated registration processes or frequent loading times can make use difficult. Solutions for older people therefore benefit from a design that takes into account changes in vision and hearing, fine motor skills and cognitive capacity. Appropriate access rights for family members and professionals can also help to facilitate use. Age-appropriate design thus contributes to effectiveness in everyday care.
Fourth, a home care offering often involves more than the product. Installation, alarm management, technical support, and dealing with missing data are all part of the ongoing operation. Therefore, when selecting local partners, distribution access is only one of the relevant factors; operational capabilities and clear responsibilities are also important.
Fifth, data privacy and data use should be considered together. Health data is sensitive, yet the benefits of digital solutions often depend on the secure transfer of relevant information into clinical systems. Early planning of consent, roles, interoperability, cybersecurity, and cross-border data flows can facilitate later adjustments and support international scaling.
The real opportunity is more healthy and independent life time
The silver economy is often associated with the purchasing power of older people. But for Swiss life science companies, another mechanism is more important: every additional month of independent living can help delay institutional care and maintain quality of life. Medical benefits and economic value can thus reinforce each other.
The companies that will succeed are not those that shout the loudest about age as a megatrend. The winners will be those that precisely identify the bottleneck, demonstrate their impact locally, and plan product, compensation, and service as a system. Switzerland is well positioned to do this. Precision, reliability, and clinical quality are especially valuable in the care of the elderly. But they will only count in export markets when they translate into fewer hospital days, less labor, or more independent living time.
The Silver Economy is not a single market, but a new demand structure. For Swiss life science companies, opportunities lie in solutions that reduce the burden of care, extend independence, and deliver measurable benefits.
Nicolas Panzer
Senior Manager Life Sciences, Switzerland Global Enterprise