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#JPM19 Conference: Dublin HealthBeacon Raises Funding

Posted in Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures, Investment in Technological Breakthrough, Medical Devices R&D Investment, Medication Remote Compliance Monitoring, Uncategorized, Voices of Patients and Healthcare Providers, Wearable Tech + Digital Health, tagged Boston, Entrepreneur, Funding, health, Life Sciences, Medical Devices R&D Investment, Medical technology on January 9, 2019| Leave a Comment »

News announced during the 37th J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (#JPM19): Dublin medtech HealthBeacon raises $12m in a Series A round

Reporter: Gail S. Thornton

HealthBeacon’s Smart Sharps system helps patients adhere to their medication schedule. The company was founded by Jim Joyce and Kieran Daly in 2013, and opened offices in Boston in 2017. The digital platform, which last year received vital FDA clearance for the US market, not only ensures that patients keep up with their injectable treatments, but also allows them to dispose of medication in a safe way, and keeps carers up to date with the patients’ progress.

Published January 8, 2019 by John Kennedy, Silicon Republic.

From left: Co-founders Kieran Daly and Jim Joyce. Image: HealthBeacon

With funding and FDA approval under its belt, this Dublin tech start-up has plans to help patients stick to their medication schedule.

Dublin and Boston digital health company HealthBeacon has raised $12m in a Series A investment round that brings total investment in the company to almost $15m.

The round was organised by HealthBeacon and Cantor Fitzgerald, led by Oyster Capital and Elkstone Partners, and the investment syndicate included Quorndon Capital and Cantor Fitzgerald’s private client group. Earlier investors in HealthBeacon include Enterprise Ireland, BVP and a range of angel investors.

‘I know with confidence as to whether my patients are adhering to their treatment strategy’
^{– DOUG VEALE}

“Cantor has a major focus on life sciences and on digital health, and we have every confidence that CEO and co-founder Jim Joyce has created a true sector leader in HealthBeacon,” said Liam Kiely, director of Cantor Fitzgerald.

The announcement was made in San Francisco at the JPMorgan Chase Biotech Showcase. The funding comes on the back of rapid global expansion of the FDA-cleared HealthBeacon Smart Sharps technology.

The right stuff

Dublin-based HealthBeacon’s Smart Sharps system helps patients adhere to their medication schedule. The company was founded by Jim Joyce and Kieran Daly in 2013, and opened offices in Boston in 2017.

The digital platform, which last year received vital FDA clearance for the US market, not only ensures that patients keep up with their injectable treatments, but also allows them to dispose of medication in a safe way, and keeps carers up to date with the patients’ progress.

The funding from this Series A will be used to launch its Smart Sharps system in the US and to develop its portfolio of medical adherence tools for high-value medications.

In 2017, HealthBeacon revealed plans to create 20 new jobs in Dublinin roles spanning IT, software development, project management and customer service. As of today, HealthBeacon operates in 10 markets and has tracked more than 200,000 home-based injections, making it one of the largest global deployments of a medical adherence device. Today, HealthBeacon employs more than 30 people and plans to double the team over the next 18 months.

The addressable market for injectable medications has reached nearly $50bn, according to the company. The Smart Sharps bin system by HealthBeacon has made it easier for patients using injectable medications to stay on track with their treatment. This has resulted in improved patient medication adherence, driving patient care.

In December, HealthBeacon was named eHealth Innovation of the Year by the Irish Medtech Association.

“I’ve been using the HealthBeacon for over two years, and their Smart Sharps bin has had a profound impact on how patients manage their treatment,” said Doug Veale, professor of rheumatology at St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin.

“I know with confidence as to whether my patients are adhering to their treatment strategy.”

Editor John Kennedy is an award-winning technology journalist.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com

SOURCE

https://www.siliconrepublic.com/start-ups/healthbeacon-series-a-investment

37th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE: News at #JPM2019 for Jan. 8, 2019: Deals and Announcements

37th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE: #JPM2019 for Jan. 8, 2019; Opening Videos, Novartis expands Cell Therapies, January 7 – 10, 2019, Westin St. Francis Hotel | San Francisco, California

Posted in BioIT: BioInformatics, Conference Coverage with Social Media, Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures, Pharmaceutical Industry Competitive Intelligence, Pharmaceutical R&D Investment, Pharmaceuticall R&D Informatics, Uncategorized, Venture Capital, tagged #JPM2019, Business News JP Morgan Healthcare Conference Adaptive Biotechnologies Counsyl Danaher Human Longevity JP Morgan Qiagen Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cell therapy, healthcare, healthcare innovation, Mergers and acquisitions, novartis on January 8, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Reporter: Stephen J. Williams, PhD

The annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is the largest and most informative healthcare investment symposium in the industry, bringing together industry leaders, emerging fast-growth companies, innovative technology creators, and members of the investment community.

Joe Biden on the Fight Against Cancer

Former Vice President of the United States joined the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference to discuss cancer initiatives.

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Bill Gates on the Current State of Global Health

In his keynote address at the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Bill Gates spoke about the state of healthcare around the world.

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Anne Wojcicki on Disrupting the Healthcare Industry

The CEO of 23andMe discusses at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference how her genomics company is activating the power of the consumer.

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FierceBiotech Retweeted

Dan Budwick‏@DanBudwick15 minutes ago

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Another packed house as panel including @bmsnews $BMY Saurabh Saha, @gritstoneonc $GRTS @AAllenMDPhD & @ThirdRockV Alexis Borisy discuss the rewiring of R&D for the digital age at @FierceBiotech Exec Bfast #JPM19

Novartis Talks Move to Cell and Gene Therapies at JPM

Published: Jan 08, 2019 By Alex Keown from Biospace.com

^Denis^Linine^{/ Shutterstock}

Following a strong post-hoc analysis of mid-stage data in the fall of 2018, Novartis announced this morning the company’s experimental humanized anti-P-selectin monoclonal antibody was crizanlizumab granted Breakthrough Therapy Status by the U.S.Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Crizanlizumab received the designation as a treatment for the prevention of vaso-occlusive crises (VOCs) in patients of all genotypes with sickle cell disease (SCD). VOCs, which can be extremely painful for patients, happen when multiple blood cells stick to each other and to blood vessels, causing blockages.

The designation was awarded following results from the Phase II SUSTAIN trial, which showed that crizanlizumab reduced the median annual rate of VOCs leading to health care visits by 45.3 percent compared to placebo. The SUSTAIN study also showed that crizanlizumab significantly increased the percentage of patients who did not experience any VOCs vs placebo, 35.8 percent vs. 16.9 percent.

The FDA designation came one day after the Swiss pharma giant laid out its map for a future of success, sustainability and, if things work out, respect from consumers. In an interview with CNBC Monday, Novartis Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan noted that the company is looking to become an entity that doesn’t draw its profits from treating disease, but will make money by providing cures. He pointed to the moves Novartis has made toward gene and cellular therapies that have the potential to cure patients of various diseases in what many researchers hope could be a “one-and-done” treatment. Narasimhan told CNBC that cures are what society wants and that is something they will value. The challenge will be determining the payment system.

As an example, the company is eying potential approval of a gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a fatal genetic disease marked by progressive, debilitating muscle weakness in infants and toddlers. Novartis’ gene therapy Zolgensma is expected to be approved by the FDA this year and could have a price tag of between $4 and $5 million. While significantly high, non-profit SMA groups have already suggested that the gene therapy treatment could be more cost-effective than Spinraza, the only approved SMA treatment on the market.

During its presentation at J.P. Morgan, Novartis pointed to the moves it has made as the company pivots to this future of gene and cell therapies. The presentation noted that over the course of 2018, the company made several deals to sell off non-essential businesses, such as the $13 billion sale of its share of a consumer health business to partner GlaxoSmithKline. Not only that, but Novartis also made significant acquisitions to reshape its portfolio, including the $8.7 billion acquisition of AveXis for the SMA gene therapy. The deal for AveXis wasn’t the only gene therapy deal the company struck. Novartis began 2018 with a deal for Spark Therapeutics’ gene therapy Luxturna, a one-time gene therapy to restore functional vision in children and adult patients with biallelic mutations of the RPE65 (retinal pigment epithelial 65 kDa protein) gene.

In his interview with CNBC, Narasimhan said the company is about “platforms,” which also includes radio-ligand therapy. The company forged ahead in that area with two acquisitions, Advanced Accelerator Applications and Endocyte. Radiopharmaceuticals like Endocyte’s Lu-PSMA-617 are innovative medicinal formulations containing radioisotopes used clinically for both diagnosis and therapy. When the Endocyte deal was announced, Novartis noted the field is expected to become an increasingly important treatment option for patients, as well as a key growth driver for the company’s oncology business.

Thriving at the Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age – An AGE like no Other, also known as, DIGITAL

Posted in Big Data & Analytics, BioIT: BioInformatics, BioIT: BioInformatics, NGS, Clinical & Translational, Pharmaceuticall R&D Informatics, Clinical Genomics, Cancer Informatics, BioTechnology - Venture Creation, BioTechnology - Venture Creation, Venture Capital, Data Science, Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures, Genetics & Innovations in Treatment, Genetics & Pharmaceutical, Genome Biology, Genomic Testing: Methodology for Diagnosis, Health Law & Patient Safety, HealthCare IT, LPBI Group Founder - Aviva Lev-Ari, Scientific & Biotech Conferences: Press Coverage, Scientific Publishing, Scientist: Career considerations, Statistical Methods for Research Evaluation, Women in Life Sciences on June 11, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Thriving at the Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age – An AGE like no Other, also known as, DIGITAL

Author and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

The source for the inspiration to write this curation is described in

Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/06/13/survival-calls-during-careers-in-the-digital-age/

In this curation, I present the following concepts in three parts:

Part 1: Authenticity of Careers in the Digital Age: In Focus, the BioTechnology Sector
Part 2: Top 10 books to help you survive the Digital Age
Part 3: A case study on Thriving at the Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age: Aviva Lev-Ari, UCB, PhD’83; HUJI, MA’76

Part 1: Authenticity of Careers in the Digital Age:

In Focus, the BioTechnology Sector

Lisa LaMotta, Senior Editor, BioPharma Dive wrote in Conference edition | June 11, 2018

Unlike that little cancer conference in Chicago last week, the BIO International convention is not about data, but about the people who make up the biopharma industry.

The meeting brings together scientists, board members, business development heads and salespeople, from the smallest virtual biotechs to the largest of pharmas. It allows executives at fledgling biotechs to sit at the same tables as major decision-makers in the industry — even if it does look a little bit like speed dating.

But it’s not just a partnering meeting.

This year’s BIO also sought to shine a light on pressing issues facing the industry. Among those tackled included elevating the discussion on gender diversity and how to bring more women to the board level; raising awareness around suicide and the need for more mental health treatments; giving a voice to patient advocacy groups; and highlighting the need for access to treatments in developing nations.

Four days of meetings and panel discussions are unlikely to move the needle for many of these challenges, but debate can be the first step toward progress.

I attended the meetings on June 4,5,6, 2018 and covered in Real Time the sessions I attended. On the link below, Tweets, Re-Tweets and Likes mirrors the feelings and the opinions of the attendees as expressed in real time using the Twitter.com platform. This BioTechnology events manifested the AUTHENTICITY of Careers in the Digital Age – An AGE like no Other, also known as, DIGITAL.

The entire event is covered on twitter.com by the following hash tag and two handles:

I covered the events on two tracks via two Twitter handles, each handle has its own followers:

The official LPBI Group Twitter.com account

@Pharma_BI

The Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN Twitter.com account

@AVIVA1950

Track A:

Original Tweets by @Pharma_BI and by @AVIVA1950 for #BIO2018 @IAmBiotech @BIOConvention – BIO 2018, Boston, June 4-7, 2018, BCEC

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/06/11/original-tweets-by-pharma_bi-and-by-aviva1950-from-bio2018-iambiotech-bioconvention-bio-2018-boston-june-4-7-2018-bcec/

Reactions to Original Tweets by @Pharma_BI and by @AVIVA1950 from #BIO2018

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/06/12/reactions-to-original-tweets-by-pharma_bi-and-by-aviva1950-from-bio2018/

Track B:

Re-Tweets and Likes by @Pharma_BI and by @AVIVA1950 from #BIO2018 @IAmBiotech @BIOConvention – BIO 2018, Boston, June 4-7, 2018, BCEC

Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/06/11/re-tweets-and-likes-by-pharma_bi-aviva1950-from-bio2018-iambiotech-bioconvention-bio-2018-boston-june-4-7-2018-bcec/

Part 2: Top 10 books to help you survive the digital age

From Philip K Dick’s obtuse robots to Mark O’Connell’s guide to transhumanism, novelist Julian Gough picks essential reading for a helter skelter world

Here are 10 of the books that did help me [novelist Julian Gough]: they might also help you understand, and survive, our complicated, stressful, digital age.

Marshall McLuhan Unbound by Marshall McLuhan (2005)
The visionary Canadian media analyst predicted the internet, and coined the phrase the Global Village, in the early 1960s. His dense, complex, intriguing books explore how changes in technology change us. This book presents his most important essays as 20 slim pamphlets in a handsome, profoundly physical, defiantly non-digital slipcase.
Ubik by Philip K Dick (1969)
Pure pulp SF pleasure; a deep book disguised as a dumb one. Dick shows us, not a dystopia, but a believably shabby, amusingly human future. The everyman hero, Joe Chip, wakes up and argues with his robot toaster, which refuses to toast until he sticks a coin in the slot. Joe can’t do this, because he’s broke. He then has a stand-up row with his robot front door, which won’t open, because he owes it money too … Technology changes: being human, and broke, doesn’t. Warning: Dick wrote Ubik at speed, on speed. But embedded in the pulpy prose are diamonds of imagery that will stay with you for ever.
The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil (2005)
This book is what Silicon Valley has instead of a bible. It’s a visionary work that predicts a technological transformation of the world in our lifetime. Kurzweil argues that computer intelligence will soon outperform human thought. We will then encode our minds, upload them, and become one with our technology, achieving the Singularity. At which point, the curve of technological progress starts to go straight up. Ultimately – omnipotent, no longer mortal, no longer flesh – we transform all the matter in the universe into consciousness; into us.
To Be a Machine by Mark O’Connell (2017)
This response to Kurzweil won this year’s Wellcome prize. It’s a short, punchy tour of transhumanism: the attempt to meld our minds with machines, to transcend biology and escape death. He meets some of the main players, and many on the fringes, and listens to them, quizzically. It is a deliberately, defiantly human book, operating in that very modern zone between sarcasm and irony, where humans thrive and computers crash.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2011)
This intricately structured, incredibly clever novel moves from the 60s right through to a future maybe 15 years from now. It steps so lightly into that future you hardly notice the transition. It has sex and drugs and rock’n’roll, solar farms, social media scams and a stunningly moving chapter written as a PowerPoint presentation. It’s a masterpiece. Life will be like this.
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly (2010)
Kelly argues that we scruffy biological humans are no longer driving technological progress. Instead, the technium, “the greater, global, massively interconnected system of technology vibrating around us”, is now driving its own progress, faster and faster, and we are just caught up in its slipstream. As we accelerate down the technological waterslide, there is no stopping now … Kelly’s vision of the future is scary, but it’s fun, and there is still a place for us in it.
The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore (1999)
Blackmore expands powerfully and convincingly on Richard Dawkins’s original concept of the meme. She makes a forceful case that technology, religion, fashion, art and even our personalities are made of memes – ideas that replicate, mutate and thus evolve over time. We are their replicators (if you buy my novel, you’ve replicated its memes); but memes drive our behaviour just as we drive theirs. It’s a fascinating book that will flip your world upside down.
Neuromancer by William Gibson (1984)
In the early 1980s, Gibson watched kids leaning into the screens as they played arcade games. They wanted to be inside the machines, he realised, and they preferred the games to reality. In this novel, Gibson invented the term cyberspace; sparked the cyberpunk movement (to his chagrin); and vividly imagined the jittery, multi-screened, anxious, technological reality that his book would help call into being.
You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier (2010)
Lanier, an intense, brilliant, dreadlocked artist, musician and computer scientist, helped to develop virtual reality. His influential essay Digital Maoism described early the downsides of online collective action. And he is deeply aware that design choices made by (mainly white, young, male) software engineers can shape human behaviour globally. He argues, urgently, that we need to question those choices, now, because once they are locked in, all of humanity must move along those tracks, and we may not like where they take us. Events since 2010 have proved him right. His manifesto is a passionate argument in favour of the individual voice, the individual gesture.
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks (2000)
Not, perhaps, an immediately obvious influence on a near-future techno-thriller in which military drones chase a woman and her son through Las Vegas. But hooks’s magnificent exploration and celebration of love, first published 18 years ago, will be far more useful to us, in our alienated digital future, than the 10,000 books of technobabble published this year. All About Love is an intensely practical roadmap, from where we are now to where we could be. When Naomi and Colt find themselves on the run through a militarised American wilderness of spirit, when GPS fails them, bell hooks is their secret guide.

Connect by Julian Gough is published by Picador, priced £14.99. It is available from the Guardian bookshop for £12.74, including free UK p&p.

SOURCE

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/30/top-10-books-to-help-you-survive-the-digital-age?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Bookmarks+-+Collections+2017&utm_term=277690&subid=25658468&CMP=bookmarks_collection

Part 3: A case study on Thriving at the Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age: Aviva Lev-Ari, UCB, PhD’83; HUJI, MA’76

On June 10, 2018

Following, is a case study about an alumna of HUJI and UC, Berkeley as an inspirational role model. An alumna’s profile in context of dynamic careers in the digital age. It has great timeliness and relevance to graduate students, PhD level at UC Berkeley and beyond, to all other top tier universities in the US and Europe. As presented in the following curations:

Professional Self Re-Invention: From Academia to Industry – Opportunities for PhDs in the Business Sector of the Economy

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/05/22/professional-self-re-invention-from-academia-to-industry-opportunities-for-phds-in-the-business-sector-of-the-economy/

Pioneering implementations of analytics to business decision making: contributions to domain knowledge conceptualization, research design, methodology development, data modeling and statistical data analysis: Aviva Lev-Ari, UCB, PhD’83; HUJI, MA’76

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/05/28/pioneering-implementations-of-analytics-to-business-decision-making-contributions-to-domain-knowledge-conceptualization-research-design-methodology-development-data-modeling-and-statistical-data-a/

This alumna is Editor-in-Chief of a Journal that has other 173 articles on Scientist: Career Considerations

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/category/scientist-career-considerations/

In a 5/22/2018 article, Ways to Pursue Science Careers in Business After a PhD by Ankita Gurao,

https://bitesizebio.com/38498/ways-to-pursue-the-business-of-science-after-a-ph-d/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=SocialWarfare

Unemployment figures of PhDs by field of science are included, Ankita Gurao identifies the following four alternative careers for PhDs in the non-academic world:

Science Writer/Journalist/Communicator
Science Management
Science Administration
Science Entrepreneurship

My career, as presented in Reflections on a Four-phase Career: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN, March 2018

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/06/reflections-on-a-four-phase-career-aviva-lev-ari-phd-rn-march-2018/

has the following phases:

Phase 1: Research, 1973 – 1983
Phase 2: Corporate Applied Research in the US, 1985 – 2005
Phase 3: Career Reinvention in Health Care, 2005 – 2012
Phase 4: Electronic Scientific Publishing, 4/2012 to present

These four phases are easily mapped to the four alternative careers for PhDs in the non-academic world. One can draw parallel lines between the four career opportunities A,B,C,D, above, and each one of the four phases in my own career.

Namely, I have identified A,B,C,D as early as 1985, and pursued each of them in several institutional settings, as follows:

A. Science Writer/Journalist/Communicator – see link above for Phase 4: Electronic Scientific Publishing, 4/2012 to present

B. Science Management – see link above for Phase 2: Corporate Applied Research in the US, 1985 – 2005 and Phase 3: Career Reinvention in Health Care, 2005 – 2012

C. Science Administration – see link above for Phase 2: Corporate Applied Research in the US, 1985 – 2005and Phase 4: Electronic Scientific Publishing, 4/2012 to present

D. Science Entrepreneurship – see link above for Phase 4: Electronic Scientific Publishing, 4/2012 to present

Impressions of My Days at Berkeley in Recollections: Part 1 and 2, below.

Recollections: Part 1 – My days at Berkeley, 9/1978 – 12/1983 –About my doctoral advisor, Allan Pred, other professors and other peers

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/03/15/recollections-my-days-at-berkeley-9-1978-12-1983-about-my-doctoral-advisor-allan-pred-other-professors-and-other-peer/

Recollections: Part 2 – “While Rolling” is preceded by “While Enrolling” Autobiographical Alumna Recollections of Berkeley – Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD’83

https://pharmaceuticalintelligence.com/2018/05/24/recollections-part-2-while-rolling-is-preceded-by-while-enrolling-autobiographical-alumna-recollections-of-berkeley-aviva-lev-ari-phd83/

The topic of Careers in the Digital Age is closely related to my profile, see chiefly: Four-phase Career, Reflections, Recollections Parts 1 & 2 and information from other biographical sources, below.

Other sources for my biography

Read Full Post »

Defining Health Care’s Future: Digital Health, Innovation Accessible, Prevention Importance as Cure

Posted in Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures, Healthcare costs and reimbursement, HealthCare IT, Interviews with Scientific Leaders, United States on January 9, 2018| Leave a Comment »

Defining Health Care’s Future: Digital Health, Innovation Accessible, Prevention Importance as Cure – The Vision of Stanford Medical School Dean delivered at 2018 JP Morgan in San Francisco

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

At JPM 2018: Three Challenges That Will Define Health Care’s Future

Published on Published on January 8, 2018

Lloyd Minor, LinkedIn Influencer

Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Dean, Stanford University School of Medicine

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/jpm-2018-three-challenges-define-health-cares-future-lloyd-minor/?trackingId=e9O96U%2FFW9LDGKaIw%2Bt8xw%3D%3D

Read Full Post »

M&A of Online health publisher, WebMD Health Corporation by KKR & Co.: Dynamics in Health Care Media, Web-Health and Health Information Markets

Posted in Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures, tagged Health Care Media, Health Information Markets, Web-Health on July 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

M&A of Online health publisher, WebMD Health Corporation by KKR & Co.: Dynamics in Health Care Media, Web-Health and Health Information Markets

Reporter and Curator: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

The New York-based WebMD Health Corp., health-information provider (WBMD) was acquired by KKR & Co., deal reached on 7/24/2017. The deal, approved by the WebMD board, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017.

New management at KKR was announced: Co-Presidents and Co-Operating Officers:

Joe Bae, and
Scott Nuttall

They are replacing Henry Kravits and George Roberts, who started KKR in 1976.

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC is WebMD’s financial adviser
Shearman & Sterling LLP is WebMD’s legal adviser.
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is KKR’s Internet Brands’ legal adviser.

WebMD’s chairman Martin Wygod said Monday’s deal was the culmination of a sale process that reached 100 possible buyers as is seen as the best possible premium for shareholders. Though Monday’s deal is struck at a substantial premium to WebMD’s beginning-of-year share price it is roughly the same price as the company’s May 2016 highs. Over the past three and five years, WebMD has returned 15% and 190% respectively, indicating the company’s volatile run on public stock markets as a midcap web health brand.

Herald Chen, head of KKR’s technology industry team, “KKR and Internet Brands are pleased to be investing behind the experienced WebMD management team and trusted WebMD platforms. The combined portfolio of leading vertical internet assets will be a powerful one.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2017/07/24/kkr-strikes-deal-to-buy-health-information-giant-webmd-for-2-8b-and-a-former-partner-scores/#6f3f567b2730

Founded in 1996, WebMD has grown into one of the most popular health websites for consumers and medical professionals, attracting more than 70 million monthly unique visitors in 2016, according to analytics company comScore Inc (SCOR.PK). WebMD was founded by Jeffrey Arnold, who became a billionaire at age 29 when the company merged with Healtheon Corp. in 1999.

https://research.tdameritrade.com/grid/public/markets/news/story.asp?docKey=1-SN20170724000559&provider=CBSMarketWatch

Internet Brands, which launched as CarsDirect.com in 1998, licenses and delivers its content and internet technology products and services to small and medium-sized businesses. It was acquired by KKR in 2014 for $1.1 billion from two other private equity firms, Hellman & Friedman LLC and JMI Equity.

Under KKR, the company has expanded its portfolio of brands to include Demandforce and Fodor’s Travel.

A deal would make WebMD the latest healthcare media company to be sold. In December, j2 Global Inc’s (JCOM.O) digital media arm Ziff Davis LLC acquired Everyday Health Inc, a U.S. operator of health-related websites, for $465 million, including debt.

SOURCE

http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-webmd-m-a-kkr-exclusive-idUKKBN1A80US

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kkr-co-near-deal-to-buy-webmd-1500851095

Results for WebMD 4Q2016

Fourth quarter revenue was $207.5 million, compared to $192.1 million last year, an increase of 8%. Advertising and sponsorship revenue grew 8% to $171 million, compared to $158.3 million in the prior year period. Breaking down our advertising and sponsorship revenue further:

• revenue from biopharma and medical device clients increased 11% compared to the prior year period; and

• revenue from OTC, CPG and other clients was comparable to the prior year period.

Health services revenue was $28.8 million, an increase of 6% compared to $27.2 million in the prior year period. Information services revenue was $7.7 million, an increase of 16% compared to $6.6 million in the prior year period. Fourth quarter net income increased 32% to $36.2 million or $0.73 per diluted share compared to $27.5 million, or $0.60 per diluted share in the prior year period. Fourth quarter Adjusted EBITDA increased 16% to $78.1 million, or 38% of revenue, compared to $67.4 million, or 35% of revenue, in the prior year period. Capital expenditures were $5.3 million in the quarter. Operating cash flow was approximately $66.9 million in the quarter. This includes a cash tax benefit of $28 million related to the use of our tax NOL’s generated by stock based compensation which, as required by GAAP, are included in the financing section of the cash flow statement rather than in the operating section.

SOURCE

TRANSCRIPT OF Q4 2016 WEBMD EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL – Feb. 16, 2017

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/WBMD/4075514959x0x929898/89CBE95F-8CF1-4234-B809-D93060391CE5/WBMD_Q4_16_TRANSCRIPT.pdf

Current Portfolio of Assets in Health-related Websites: Outcome of

M&A of WebMD by KKR

The deal brings together WebMD’s websites, such as

WebMD.com,
eponymous site,
Medscape.com, – accounted for around 60 percent of its advertising revenue in 2016.
MedicineNet.com.

with those owned by KKR unit Internet Brands Inc, including businesses serving 50,000 health practices and boast a big footprint in cloud web hosting geared towards practitioners such as dentists, chiropractors, veterinarians, eye doctors and therapists. Its operating businesses include

SOURCES

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/24/webmd-to-be-acquired-by-kkr-for-66-point-50-a-share-in-cash.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoinegara/2017/07/24/kkr-strikes-deal-to-buy-health-information-giant-webmd-for-2-8b-and-a-former-partner-scores/#6f3f567b2730

The DEAL

…On a P/E basis the deal price represents 32.4x our 2017 GAAP EPS estimate of $2.05 and 31.7x our 2018 estimate of $2.10. EVDY received 9.6x FY1 and 7.5x FY2 Adj. EBITDA last year when it was acquired by JCOM. On an EV/Adj. EBITDA basis we estimate the deal represents 10.7x 2017E EBITDA and 10.1x 2018E EBITDA, which is well above the multiple that EVDY received. This news is a significant positive given that the deal price is slightly above the range we had been assuming, and there had been some news commentary recently that WBMD was having some challenges agreeing on a price with prospective buyers.

SOURCE

http://www.barrons.com/articles/kkr-deal-revives-webmd-shares-1500903910

WebMD Is Said Near a Sale to K.K.R.

The health publisher WebMD could soon join a stable that also houses DentalPlans.com, VeinDirectory.org and AllAboutCounseling.com.

K.K.R. is near to an all-cash deal to buy WebMD Health Corporation, which owns WebMD.com,Medscape.com and MedicineNet.com, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal reported.

The deal would bring all the WebMD websites into K.K.R.’s company Internet Brands.

WebMD, which has a market capitalization of $2.1 billion, had said in February that it would explore its options after a slowdown in pharmaceuticals advertising.

SOURCE

From: CNBC Morning Squawk <morningsquawk@response.cnbc.com>

Reply-To: CNBC <reply-feef1278736c00-23_HTML-4897801-7204331-344@response.cnbc.com>

Date: Monday, July 24, 2017 at 8:34 AM

To: Aviva Lev-Ari <AvivaLev-Ari@alum.berkeley.edu>

Subject: Earnings, Fed hold keys to Wall Street’s recent record run

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Arrhythmias Detection: Speeding Diagnosis and Treatment – New deep learning algorithm can diagnose 14 types of heart rhythm defects by sifting through hours of ECG data generated by some REMOTELY iRhythm’s wearable monitors

Posted in Arrhythmia Detection with Machine Learning Algorithms, Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures, Electrophysiology, Frontiers in Cardiology and Cardiovascular Disorders, tagged deep learning algorithm for heart rhythm data on July 10, 2017| Leave a Comment »

Arrhythmias Detection: Speeding Diagnosis and Treatment – New deep learning algorithm can diagnose 14 types of heart rhythm defects by sifting through hours of ECG data generated by some REMOTELY iRhythm’s wearable monitors

Reporter: Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN

Long term, the group hopes this algorithm could be a step toward expert-level arrhythmia diagnosis for people who don’t have access to a cardiologist, as in many parts of the developing world and in other rural areas. More immediately, the algorithm could be part of a wearable device that at-risk people keep on at all times that would alert emergency services to potentially deadly heartbeat irregularities as they’re happening.

said Pranav Rajpurkar, a graduate student and co-lead author of the paper. “For example, two forms of the arrhythmia known as second-degree atrioventricular block look very similar, but one requires no treatment while the other requires immediate attention.”

To test accuracy of the algorithm, the researchers gave a group of three expert cardiologists 300 undiagnosed clips and asked them to reach a consensus about any arrhythmias present in the recordings. Working with these annotated clips, the algorithm could then predict how those cardiologists would label every second of other ECGs with which it was presented, in essence, giving a diagnosis.

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/06/algorithm-diagnoses-heart-arrhythmias-cardiologist-level-accuracy/

iRhythm, maker of portable ECG devices

Image Source:

https://www-technologyreview-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.technologyreview.com/s/608234/the-machines-are-getting-ready-to-play-doctor/amp/

Cardiologist-Level Arrhythmia Detection with Convolutional Neural Networks

Pranav Rajpurkar, Awni Y. Hannun, Masoumeh Haghpanahi, Codie Bourn, Andrew Y. Ng

(Submitted on 6 Jul 2017)

We develop an algorithm which exceeds the performance of board certified cardiologists in detecting a wide range of heart arrhythmias from electrocardiograms recorded with a single-lead wearable monitor. We build a dataset with more than 500 times the number of unique patients than previously studied corpora. On this dataset, we train a 34-layer convolutional neural network which maps a sequence of ECG samples to a sequence of rhythm classes. Committees of board-certified cardiologists annotate a gold standard test set on which we compare the performance of our model to that of 6 other individual cardiologists. We exceed the average cardiologist performance in both recall (sensitivity) and precision (positive predictive value).

Subjects:	Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
Cite as:	arXiv:1707.01836 [cs.CV]
	(or arXiv:1707.01836v1 [cs.CV] for this version)

Submission history

From: Awni Hannun [view email]
[v1] Thu, 6 Jul 2017 15:42:46 GMT (852kb,D)

SOURCE

https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.01836

Active Learning Applied to Patient-Adaptive Heartbeat Classification

Part of: Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 23 (NIPS 2010)

[PDF] [BibTeX] [Supplemental]

Authors

Abstract

While clinicians can accurately identify different types of heartbeats in electrocardiograms (ECGs) from different patients, researchers have had limited success in applying supervised machine learning to the same task. The problem is made challenging by the variety of tasks, inter- and intra-patient differences, an often severe class imbalance, and the high cost of getting cardiologists to label data for individual patients. We address these difficulties using active learning to perform patient-adaptive and task-adaptive heartbeat classification. When tested on a benchmark database of cardiologist annotated ECG recordings, our method had considerably better performance than other recently proposed methods on the two primary classification tasks recommended by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. Additionally, our method required over 90% less patient-specific training data than the methods to which we compared it.

SOURCE

http://papers.nips.cc/paper/4091-active-learning-applied-to-patient-adaptive-heartbeat-classification

Cardiologist-Level Arrhythmia Detection With Convolutional Neural Networks

Pranav Rajpurkar*, Awni Hannun*, Masoumeh Haghpanahi, Codie Bourn, and Andrew Ng

A collaboration between Stanford University and iRhythm Technologies

https://stanfordmlgroup.github.io/projects/ecg/

JULY 6, 2017

Stanford computer scientists develop an algorithm that diagnoses heart arrhythmias with cardiologist-level accuracy

A new deep learning algorithm can diagnose 14 types of heart rhythm defects, called arrhythmias, better than cardiologists. This could speed diagnosis and improve treatment for people in rural locations.

BY TAYLOR KUBOTA

SOURCES

http://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/06/algorithm-diagnoses-heart-arrhythmias-cardiologist-level-accuracy/

The Machines Are Getting Ready to Play Doctor

An algorithm that spots heart arrhythmia shows how AI will revolutionize medicine—but patients must trust machines with their lives.

by Will Knight, July 7, 2017

https://www-technologyreview-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.technologyreview.com/s/608234/the-machines-are-getting-ready-to-play-doctor/amp/

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI

No one really knows how the most advanced algorithms do what they do. That could be a problem.

by Will Knight, April 11, 2017

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/604087/the-dark-secret-at-the-heart-of-ai/

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Older Posts »

Funding, Deals & Partnerships: BIOLOGICS & MEDICAL DEVICES; BioMed e-Series; Medicine and Life Sciences Scientific Journal – http://PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com

Archive for the ‘Digital HealthCare – biotech & internet joint ventures’ Category

News announced during the 37th J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference (#JPM19): Dublin medtech HealthBeacon raises $12m in a Series A round

The right stuff

Other posts on the JP Morgan 2019 Healthcare Conference on this Open Access Journal include:

37th Annual J.P. Morgan HEALTHCARE CONFERENCE: #JPM2019 for Jan. 8, 2019; Opening Videos, Novartis expands Cell Therapies, January 7 – 10, 2019, Westin St. Francis Hotel | San Francisco, California

Novartis Talks Move to Cell and Gene Therapies at JPM

Other posts on the JP Morgan 2019 Healthcare Conference on this Open Access Journal include:

Thriving at the Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age – An AGE like no Other, also known as, DIGITAL

The source for the inspiration to write this curation is described in

Part 1: Authenticity of Careers in the Digital Age:

In Focus, the BioTechnology Sector

Part 2: Top 10 books to help you survive the digital age

Part 3: A case study on Thriving at the Survival Calls during Careers in the Digital Age: Aviva Lev-Ari, UCB, PhD’83; HUJI, MA’76

Digital Health Breakthrough Business Models, June 5, 2018 @BIOConvention, Boston, BCEC

Defining Health Care’s Future: Digital Health, Innovation Accessible, Prevention Importance as Cure – The Vision of Stanford Medical School Dean delivered at 2018 JP Morgan in San Francisco

M&A of Online health publisher, WebMD Health Corporation by KKR & Co.: Dynamics in Health Care Media, Web-Health and Health Information Markets

Results for WebMD 4Q2016

Current Portfolio of Assets in Health-related Websites: Outcome of

M&A of WebMD by KKR

The DEAL

Arrhythmias Detection: Speeding Diagnosis and Treatment – New deep learning algorithm can diagnose 14 types of heart rhythm defects by sifting through hours of ECG data generated by some REMOTELY iRhythm’s wearable monitors

Image Source:

Cardiologist-Level Arrhythmia Detection with Convolutional Neural Networks

Active Learning Applied to Patient-Adaptive Heartbeat Classification

Authors

Abstract

Cardiologist-Level Arrhythmia Detection With Convolutional Neural Networks

Stanford computer scientists develop an algorithm that diagnoses heart arrhythmias with cardiologist-level accuracy

The Machines Are Getting Ready to Play Doctor

The Dark Secret at the Heart of AI

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