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☆ Exclusive: Electronic prescribing giant Surescripts is exploring a sale
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-02 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Surescripts is up for sale and has hired a bank to search for potential buyers, including private equity firms. The company dominates electronic prescribing, processing 2.5 billion prescriptions in 2023. Surescripts, the healthcare technology company that facilitates most electronic prescribing in the US, is exploring a sale, Business Insider has learned. The privately-held company hired healthcare investment bank TripleTree and is looking for potential buyers, including private equity firms, according to two people with knowledge of the deal. Surescripts, formed by a merger in 2008, has long dominated e-prescribing, providing the connectivity that allows doctors to send prescriptions from their electronic health records to pharmacies.

Persons: Surescripts Organizations: CVS Health, Business

☆ Walgreens is closing all VillageMD primary-care clinics in Florida as the pharmacy giant slashes costs
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Read previewWalgreens-backed primary care company VillageMD is closing all its medical clinics in Florida, one of its largest markets. VillageMD confirmed the closures in an email to Business Insider on Wednesday. The closures are part of Walgreens' strategy to slash spending by $1 billion or more as the pharmacy giant's healthcare business struggles with losses. All of the VillageMD clinics in Florida are attached to Walgreens stores, according to Jefferies' January report. At the time of the acquisition, Walgreens had planned to open 1,000 VillageMD clinics located adjacent to its pharmacies by 2027.

Persons: —, VillageMD, Jefferies, Tim Wentworth, Brian Tanquilut, Jack Slevin, Tanquilut, Wentworth, Roz Brewer, John Driscoll, Mary Langowski, Driscoll Organizations: Service, Business, Walgreens, Jefferies, CVS Health, Summit, Solera, Shields Health Solutions, Pearl Health Locations: Florida, Texas, Arizona, VillageMD, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Shields

☆ Women's health is gaining traction — and a top VC predicts a blockbuster IPO for Maven could pave the way for more transactions
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-26 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Investors rely on "exits" such as initial public offerings when assigning valuations to similar companies, Farr said. So the lack of attractive data on this front is helping to hold back the women's health category as a whole, she said. "Depressed valuations are keeping the IPO window latched," the authors of the SVB report wrote. Maven ClinicWomen's health, long neglected by VCs, is gaining tractionHistorically, investment in women's health has lagged behind other parts of healthcare. More than 76% of women's health startups have at least one female cofounder, the SVB report said.

Persons: Chrissy Farr, Farr, Maven, Kate Ryder, SVB, Gina Bartasi Organizations: OMERS Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, Business, Maven

☆ 25 healthcare startups that are set to take off in 2024, according to top VCs
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-18 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

AetionAetion's website. AetionPicked by: Lynne Chou O'Keefe, the founder and managing partner of Define VenturesWhat the company does: Aetion provides pharmaceutical companies, payers, and regulators with real-world evidence they can use to inform decisions. Aetion provides the real-world evidence that insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and regulatory agencies need to evaluate the value of drugs and inform those conversations, she said. "The cost of specialty drugs, what's happening in the Inflation Reduction Act — all are bellwethers that we need a more value-based-oriented system around therapeutics going forward," she said. — Shelby Livingston

Persons: Aetion, Lynne Chou O'Keefe, O'Keefe, — Shelby Livingston

☆ The healthcare venture firm behind Livongo just raised $217 million to back the next generation of digital-health giants
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

7wireVentures, a prominent venture-capital firm, just raised $217 million to fund the next generation of healthcare startups, bringing the firm's total assets under management to more than $500 million. The fund, which closed last Friday, is the biggest that 7wire has ever raised and represents a strategy shift for the firm. The startups Folx Health and Parsley Health, new investments for 7wire, have also won contributions from the new fund. Livongo7wire keeps funds and the portfolio size, just north of 20 startups, both relatively small, all managed by only four partners: Tullman, Jaffee, Shapiro, and Garber. The small size of the operation is intentional in keeping with 7wire's "quality over quantity" approach to investing, Garber said.

Persons: 7wire, Glen Tullman, Lee Shapiro, Alyssa Jaffee, Alyssa Jaffee Alyssa Jaffee, Jaffee, Tullman, Shapiro, Robert Garber, Livongo's, Livongo 7wire, Garber, Jaffe Organizations: Folx, Parsley Health Locations: Tullman

☆ Why this top banker left Goldman Sachs to help fund women who are changing healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-08 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

At Leerink Partners, Sasha Kelemen runs an investment-banking team unlike any other on Wall Street. For her work, Insider named Kelemen to our list of 30 leaders under 40 transforming healthcare. After graduating from business school at the University of Virginia in 2017, she joined the healthcare team at Goldman Sachs. Sasha Kelemen. Sasha Kelemen with her daughters Olivia and Zoe.

Persons: Sasha Kelemen, Goldman Sachs, Kelemen, Goldman, she'd, scrappy, Chris, who'd, Barry Blake, Blake, Wall, she's, Sasha Kelemen's, who's, they're, Leerink, it's, haven't, Olivia, Zoe, Jill Angelo, wasn't Organizations: Leerink Partners, Morning, University of Virginia, Boston College, Goldman, Wall, Investment, OB Locations: Venezuela, Florida, Connecticut, SVB, New York City, women's

☆ New York's largest health system is pushing into generative AI with help from a former Amazon exec and a $100 million venture partnership
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Northwell Health, New York's largest health system, is making a big investment in generative AI. It's working through an AI partnership with Aegis Ventures to make new products for providers. New York's largest health system is deepening its push into generative AI, the hot new technology taking the business world by storm. Northwell Health is gearing up for this effort by working with Aegis Ventures, a startup studio that's committed $100 million to joint ventures with Northwell. The team at Northwell that deals with billing health plans is also interested in taking advantage of AI, Mulry said.

Persons: that's, Mark Michalski, it's, Michalski, It's, Gregg Fergus, Richard Mulry, Mulry, Billing, Northwell, Marc Paradis Organizations: Health, Aegis Ventures, Northwell, Amazon, Northwell Holdings, Aegis, Northwell's, Microsoft Locations: Michalski

Dr. Adrian Jacques Ambrose, 35, wants to make healthcare, especially mental-health care, more accessible. Ambrose is a senior medical director in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Columbia University Irving Medical CenterAmbrose, who goes professionally by Jacques, is driven by how confusing healthcare is. As a senior medical director in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, he oversees about 50 physicians and 100 other clinicians across four clinical sites. "How do I continue to inculcate this dream of advocating for not only better healthcare, but better healthcare for vulnerable populations and minority populations?"

Persons: Adrian Jacques Ambrose, Ambrose, Columbia University Irving Medical Center Ambrose, Jacques, —, David Satcher, Ambrose doesn't, Rose Organizations: of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Leadership Institute Locations: Vietnam, Hawaii

☆ A $7 billion startup wanted to build patient-friendly healthcare. Its bet on buzzy weight-loss drugs is testing that vision.
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Patient complaints go beyond the Wegovy shortageKaitlyn's complaints echo an array of issues faced by other Ro patients seeking weight-loss drugs. The patients Insider interviewed asked to be identified by their first names to protect their privacy. In this chat log, a Ro weight-loss patient sends messages to the startup asking to cancel the program. Reitano told Insider that around 90% of Ro patients got a response within 24 hours. "Until these DTC companies generally start getting into the muck of healthcare, they're not going to have a material impact," Parker told Insider.

Persons: Ro, Zachariah Reitano, Reitano, Li Ran, Robyn Phelps, Kaitlyn, She'd, didn't, she's, couldn't, Max Kerwick, drugstores, Max, Ro's, aren't, hasn't, Florian Gaertner, it's, TJ Parker, they're, Parker Organizations: New York, Getty, Better Business Bureau, Nordisk, Better Business, CareMetx, Ro, TechCrunch Locations: Xinhua, New York, New York City

☆ Longevity pioneer Peter Attia explains why the quest to live longer is constrained by the US healthcare system
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-19 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The ultra-wealthy are betting on tech and science breakthroughs to live longer. Longevity expert Dr. Peter Attia explained why preventative care like that still isn't widespread. The ultra wealthy have been shelling out to live longer for some time. In his view, there's a key obstacle standing in the way of your long-term health, ironically: the U.S. healthcare system. Attia's definition of longevity is a function of lifespan, the number of years you live, and healthspan, how well you can live them.

Persons: Peter Attia, There's, podcaster Rich, Attia, Rich —, Bryan Johnson's, Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, OpenAI's Sam Altman, we'll, it's, Rich Roll, Stefanie Keenan, Roll Organizations: Morning, Aetna, Tech, IWC Schaffhausen, behemoth Locations: U.S, Los Angeles, Canada

☆ Oracle lays off hundreds, rescinds job offers, and cuts open positions in its $28 billion Cerner health unit after troubles with a massive government contract
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-15 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Oracle laid off hundreds of employees in its health unit on Thursday, insiders said. Oracle Health includes health IT giant Cerner, which it acquired last year for about $28 billion. Cerner is Larry Ellison's primary focus as he bets on it to prove Oracle's cloud to the world. Oracle on Thursday laid off hundreds of employees, rescinded job offers, and cut back open positions within its health unit, three people familiar with the matter told Insider. Oracle Health includes health IT giant Cerner, which it acquired last year for about $28 billion.

Persons: Oracle, Larry Ellison's, Cerner's, Cerner, Larry Ellison, Ashley Stewart, Blake Dodge Organizations: Oracle Health, Oracle, US Department of Veterans Affairs

☆ 10 Things in Tech: Say goodbye to the US car market as we know it, TikTok will pay for AR filters, and YouTubers share how they make money
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

I'm Diamond Naga Siu, and I'm taking a few days off to watch my best friend graduate with their PhD. (Don't worry, my colleagues in London will be bringing you your daily dose of tech news while I'm away.) Pharmacy startup TruePill is searching for its panacea. Employees told to "drink the Kool-Aid" at Larry Page's startup. Current and former employees told Insider about the recent turmoil.

☆ The CEO of virtual-care veteran Omada shares why he's avoiding the race to prescribe trendy new weight-loss drugs and what he's doing instead
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Omada Health, a leader in managing diabetes, is grappling with how it can play a role. Health companies are at a crossroads in deciding how to respond to the frenzy for prescription weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy. Now, as the rise of these powerful drugs upends the weight-loss industry, Omada is grappling with how it can play a role. Instead of prescribing the drugs, Omada is pitching itself as a gatekeeper, akin to the role health insurers usually play. One survey from 2022 found that only about a fifth of companies cover weight-loss drugs for their workers.

☆ Insiders say Oracle is crushing morale at $28 billion acquisition Cerner by cutting over 3,000 workers, banning raises, and sidelining its former CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-16 | by ( Ashley Stewart | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

After the acquisition closed in June, Oracle has laid off more than 3,000 of the 28,000 original Cerner employees, one of the people said. According to his LinkedIn, Feinberg left the CEO role in September before becoming "chairman" of Oracle Health. After Johnson left, Oracle moved data and artificial-intelligence back under its cloud business. Internally, the face of the unit appears to be Oracle Health General Manager Travis Dalton, who has been in charge of all-hands meetings. Oracle Health is in charge of a contract worth several billion dollars to overhaul the US Department of Veterans Affairs' information systems.

☆ The pharmacy that quietly powered top startups in the hottest part of healthcare is trying to reinvent itself after losing customers and closing facilities
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

"We were shocked," a former employee in Truepill's business development division said of the layoffs. Insider spoke with five former and two current Truepill employees about the challenges the company is confronting after a tumultuous year. Truepill was hiring employees rapidly, accumulating about 1,800 employees by the spring of 2022, according to one former employee in Truepill's business division. Since then, there's been a companywide push to inch closer to profitability, one of the current employees told Insider. It's also downsizing its Miami pharmacy, the current employee said.

☆ We got an inside look at a presentation showing the future of Microsoft's $20 billion health-tech acquisition. It revealed how new AI models could transform how we go to the doctor.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Microsoft bought Nuance in 2022 for nearly $20 billion to expand its reach in healthcare. CHICAGO — In 2022, Microsoft bought Nuance for nearly $20 billion to supercharge its growth in the healthcare industry. It's the first tool in Nuance's pipeline to combine the company's own AI models with that of OpenAI, ChatGPT's creator and a deep Microsoft partner. Even back in 2015, enthusiasm for the idea was palpable, Peter Durlach, Nuance's chief strategy officer, told Insider in April. In a conference presentation, Andrea Barrett, a physician assistant and Nuance consultant, demonstrates products using generative AI.

The digital-health sector in 2020 and 2021 was the hottest part of healthcare. We spoke with top bankers and dealmakers to understand what comes next as the market cools. The pace of digital-health deals has generally slowed since the highs of 2021. Founders can thank rising interest rates, a punishing stock market for digital-health companies, and a minor banking crisis to name just a few reasons for that. Here are the healthcare industry's go-to investment bankers, in alphabetical order, and their predictions for which trends may push digital-health deals forward after a funding slump.

☆ Digital health faces the same hurdle as fintech: Get profitable or get lost.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Digital health, once the darling of the healthcare industry, is having a tough go of it. After a pandemic-fueled surge when health services and offerings utilizing tech were prioritized, digital health has come back down to earth. The similarities between digital health and fintech are striking. For both fintechs and digital health, this year has served as a reminder that they're only partly tech companies. Click here for predictions from 16 bankers and dealmakers on the future of digital health.

☆ The healthcare system is racing to unleash breakthrough AI models despite profound unanswered questions
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The behemoth health-records company Epic, which touches all corners of the healthcare ecosystem, is embracing generative AI as a necessary priority. For eight months, he and a team at Microsoft have been working with OpenAI to explore how generative AI could work in healthcare. Scientific, ethical, and legal mysteries behind ChatGPTLee's panel drew top leaders from tech and healthcare, and their questions on generative AI were sweeping. OConnor edited the note to fix a mistake and clicked a button to transfer it directly into the patient's health record. Generative AI is far from a slam dunk, HIMSS's Bogdan said, citing adoption and privacy concerns.

☆ Pharmacy startups are losing their battle with giants like CVS and Walgreens
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Pharmacy startups like Capsule and Truepill are crumbling in the fight against pharmacy giants. But in the past year, the pharmacy startups have begun to crumble. Plus, each chain has thousands of stores across the country, providing the convenience that the pharmacy startups seek to replicate with tech. The digital-pharmacy shakeoutAnalysts suggested that healthcare startups with pharmacy components, rather than pure-play pharmacy startups, are best positioned to succeed. Truepill CEO Sid Viswanathan TruepillBut the pharmacy startups that have attempted to offer additional services have largely shelved those efforts in recent months.

☆ The government is cracking down on online prescriptions. Patients with addiction and the startups caring for them are caught up in the fight.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Proposed rules would limit online addiction treatmentIn February, the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, published much-anticipated rules meant to set the record straight on online prescribing. The rules, if implemented, generally don't allow providers to prescribe controlled medications online if they don't see the patients in person. For buprenorphine and other drugs, there's an exception that would allow for initial 30-day prescriptions for online patients. Some patients are flights away from in-person careFor some patients, especially in rural areas, in-person appointments are hard to find. Last year, Alabama passed a new law prohibiting providers from prescribing controlled drugs to patients they hadn't seen in person within the past year.

☆ We got the presentation health-tech veteran Jonathan Bush used to land $40 million for his new startup Zus Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zus Health, his new startup, aims to continue some of his work at Athena to digitize patient health. Zus Health launched in 2021 with $34 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and Rock Health. Bush, Zus' CEO, told investors in a pitch, per a video Bush sent to Insider. Bush told Insider he was "blessed" to have his stake in the company diluted in this fashion, given the funding climate. "There's all these little pieces, but all of them are just re-clipboarding because nobody has a common clinical story," Bush told investors.

☆ See the pitch deck Zus Health used to convince top VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime, and Maverick to back its solution for healthcare's $140 billion data-sharing problem
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Blake Dodge | Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Zus Health launched in 2021 with $34 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and Rock Health. Bush, Zus' CEO, told investors in a pitch, per a video Bush sent to Insider. Bush told Insider he was "blessed" to have his stake in the company diluted in this fashion, given the funding climate. "There's all these little pieces, but all of them are just re-clipboarding because nobody has a common clinical story," Bush told investors. Here's the deck Zus used to raise $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz, F-Prime Capital, Maverick Ventures, and Jazz Venture Partners.

☆ The founder of Elemy raised more than $200 million to provide better autism therapy for kids. Now he's ditching patient care to chase billions selling healthcare software.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Yakubchyk told Insider that the venture studio is separate from Elemy and that he's only passively involved in it. Now they have to email a help desk, which takes longer and is less helpful, three behavior analysts said. Yakubchyk told Insider, however, that the company is still in the early stages of finding the right model for the long term. In the meeting, Tim Eby, Elemy's president, told analysts that running their own businesses would offer them more "empowerment." At Elemy, clinicians who leave largely aren't being replaced because everyone in clinical recruiting has been laid off.

☆ Troubled mental-health startup Cerebral is cutting 15% of staff as it fights to stay afloat
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Cerebral plans to cut 15% of its staff, or 285 employees, Insider has learned. Cerebral has been struggling to stay afloat following scrutiny of its prescription practices. Mental-health startup Cerebral is laying off 15% of its workforce, or about 285 employees, as the company reels from a tumultuous year of public scrutiny and federal investigations into its prescribing practices. Impacted employees will be notified through March 1, per Mou's email to Cerebral staff. Cerebral's rocky futureIn 2021, Cerebral called itself the fastest-growing mental-health company.

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