Tencent-backed WeDoctor invites banks to lead $1 billion Hong Kong IPO

WeDoctor will push ahead with a Hong Kong listing and invite pitches from investments banks next week to lead an IPO valuing the Chinese healthcare platform at up to $10 billion, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.

The Hangzhou-based company, which is backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd and Goldman Sachs, could look to raise up to $1 billion in the IPO, and could be among the first major Hong Kong listings since the coronavirus outbreak began.
WeDoctor has invited investment banks in Hong Kong and mainland China to a ‘beauty parade’, which will be held via video conferencing and in person at the company’s offices for bankers located in China, three sources said.
The company’s new chief financial officer John Cai, who is set to join from WeDoctor shareholder and strategic partner AIA where he was chief executive, will take part in the discussions from Hong Kong with bankers in the city.
Founded in 2010 by artificial intelligence expert Jerry Liao, WeDoctor has more than 210 million registered users mainly in China for its online appointment booking, prescription and diagnosis services. It is also linked to about 3,200 hospitals and 360,000 doctors.
The planned float, which will likely take place in the second half of the year, will include its core business – online healthcare services, one source said. It is considering whether to exclude some units such as cloud-services from the IPO.
WeDoctor declined to comment on its IPO plans.
The deal would be a sign that Hong Kong’s equity capital markets, which have been battered by a coronavirus-led slowdown, are set to regain some confidence in the second quarter of 2020.
WeDoctor raised $500 million https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tencent-wedoctor/tencents-wedoctor-raises-500-million-values-firm-at-5-5-billion-pre-ipo-idUSKBN1IA08G in a private funding round in May 2018 which valued the company at $5.5 billion at the time.
It is among a spate of technology-driven firms looking to shake up China’s overburdened public healthcare market, with increasingly affluent consumers willing to pay for ways to get more convenient access to doctors and health services.
Its move also comes two years after rival Ping An Good Doctor, formally known as Ping An Healthcare and Technology Co Ltd, raised $1.1 billion in an IPO, but saw its shares later tumble as investors worried about its high valuation.

https://www.marketscreener.com/TENCENT-HOLDINGS-LIMITED-3045861/news/Exclusive-Tencent-backed-WeDoctor-invites-banks-to-lead-1-billion-Hong-Kong-IPO-sources-say-30118949/

U.S. telehealth firms brace for demand spike as coronavirus spread accelerates

The U.S. telehealth industry, including market leader Teladoc Health Inc, is preparing for a surge in demand as public health officials aiming to contain the fast-spreading new coronavirus encourage use of alternatives to clinic visits and patients seek to avoid public spaces.

The virus, which originated in central China in December, has spread to around 90 countries with more than 3,400 deaths worldwide. It has also spread across the United States with cases so far in 17 states and 14 deaths, all but one in Washington state.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/healthcare-facilities/guidance-hcf.htmlexploring alternatives to face-to-face doctor or clinic visits to help limit exposure to the virus in the United States and free up resources for those who may really need it. Remote diagnoses through telehealth services could play a critical role, although actual testing for the new virus would have to be done in person.
“One of the technologies that has emerged loudly is telehealth,” said Bruce Pyenson, an actuary and adjunct professor at NYU’s school of public health, who has studied influenza pandemics.
“Telehealth services … could play a very helpful role in an epidemic, especially for the triage function of ‘How sick is someone? Do they really need immediate attention or are they probably going to be OK?'”
Virtual patient traffic at privately-held telehealth company American Well has risen about 11% since the first U.S. coronavirus death was reported on Saturday, while other companies have also had increased demand.
“We have seen an uptick in the phone calls we are receiving specifically around coronavirus,” Grand Rounds Inc Chief Medical Officer Ami Parekh told Reuters.
“Some patients just want to know if they can safely travel … some are calling with early viral symptoms and some are seeking more information on how to stay safe,” she said.
But similarities in symptoms of seasonal flu and COVID-19 – the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus – could pose a challenge to remote diagnosis.
Brad Younggren, chief medical officer of 98point6, which offers private text-based diagnosis and treatment via a mobile app, said their physicians were encouraging patients diagnosed with influenza to reconnect if they do not improve.
Teladoc said it has been partnering with the CDC to provide near real-time surveillance data on the spread of the virus.
It said it was still too early in the outbreak to judge whether the virus had boosted its business.
An $8.3 billion U.S. bill signed into law on Friday to fund the coronavirus outbreak response includes $500 million to waive certain restrictions on Medicare telehealth coverage. That provision is aimed at encouraging senior citizens to opt for at-home virtual healthcare services.
On Friday, CVS Health Corp said members of its Aetna health insurance unit should use telemedicine as their first line of defense, adding it would offer zero co-pay telemedicine visits for the next 90 days.

https://www.marketscreener.com/news/U-S-telehealth-companies-brace-for-demand-spike-as-coronavirus-spread-accelerates–30121480/?countview=0

Spherix soars on coronavirus treatment deal

Spherix (NASDAQ:SPEX) announces the execution of an exclusive option agreement with UMBC for the technology in the patent for “Methods of Treating Coronavirus Infection.”

Shares of the nano-cap are higher by 37% to $0.97.

Volume is already at 7.7M vs. average daily volume of just over 1M.

Source: Press Release

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3549430-spherix-soars-on-coronavirus-treatment-deal

Biotechs using AI to speed development of coronavirus drugs

The Wall Street Journal reports that artificial intelligence (AI) is playing a big role as biotechs race to develop treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.

There are currently no approved treatments for the respiratory infection. Antiviral drugs from Gilead Sciences’ (GILD +1.1%) and AbbVie (ABBV -1.6%) are currently being tested as is a vaccine from Moderna (MRNA -0.4%).

Taking a drug candidate from the discovery phase to a clinical trial usually takes more than a year, but the use of AI may enable a much shorter timeline. Insilico Medicine, Vir Biotechnology (VIR +2.1%) and Atomwise are among a group of firms leveraging AI to discover high-potential prospects. Vir believes that it may be able to test a candidate later this year, adding that it should be only “weeks or months” before it has the right antibodies.

Companies are also employing machine-learning algorithms to analyze large chemical datasets to predict how potential drugs will behave in the body, thereby culling the list of candidates to those with greater expected efficacy and safety.

Insilico is using two AI techniques, generative adversarial networks (GANs) to create protein-binding molecules and reinforcement learning in which an AI system learns to improve its predictions and conclusions to guide the molecules to specific objectives.

The availability of a new drug or vaccine for COVID-19 will still be about 18 months away at best. In the near term, Gilead and AbbVie’s medicines may be the most realistic options.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3549446-biotechs-using-ai-to-speed-development-of-coronavirus-drugs

Kaiser Permanente recruits volunteers for 1st coronavirus vaccine trials

Researchers are recruiting participants for clinical trials on a vaccine that’s being developed for the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The study, which is run out of the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute, seeks healthy adults between 18 and 55 years old. The participants can’t have certain health conditions, such as medical conditions that impact the immune system or be taking medications that affect the immune system.

Participants must come to 11 in-person study visits in downtown Seattle and have four phone conversations over 14 months. Over the course of the visits, participants will be injected with the vaccine twice.
Forty-five trial participants will be divided into three groups, each of which will receive different doses of the vaccine.
The goal of the first phase of the study is to learn about the vaccine’s safety and see how the immune system responds to it.
This vaccine, which is produced by ModernaTx, Inc., is not made from a weakened or killed version of coronavirus, and cannot cause infection, according to researchers. Instead it’s made using a short segment of genetic code, which tells cells to make a protein found on the outside of the 2019 novel coronavirus. When cells create that protein, it triggers an immune response.
If someone is later infected with coronavirus, their immune system will theoretically kick in on overdrive, better helping fight the virus.
Researchers said this vaccine is similar to vaccines developed for Zika virus and human metapneumovirus.
COVID-19 has killed 13 people and infected at least 70 people total in Washington state, according to EvergreenHealth Medical Center and the Washington State Department of Health. Globally, there are at least 95,000 cases and 3,200 deaths, according to the World Health Organization.
If you are interested in participating in the study, fill out a survey.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-vaccine-clinical-trial-recruitment/281-a33490a2-e3e4-4911-94fc-60473c2d4fe7

Apple reportedly rejecting coronavirus apps not made by hospitals, governments

Apple is denying applications related to the coronavirus outbreak that aren’t released by an official health organization or government, according to a March 5 CNBC report.
The technology giant has denied at least four independent developers from offering their COVID-19-related apps in Apple’s App Store, the app developers told CNBC. These apps were designed to allow users to view stats about which countries have confirmed cases of COVID-19.
One developer said an Apple employee told them “that anything related to the coronavirus must be released by an official health organization or government,” while another developer received the following written response: “apps with information about current medical information need to be submitted by a recognized institution,” CNBC reports.
Apple on March 4 published an updated policy explaining that apps in “highly-regulated” fields, such as healthcare or air travel, must be submitted by a “legal entity that provides the services, and not by an individual developer.”
Similar to Apple, Google is also cracking down on the coronavirus apps offered in its app store to help prevent the spread of misinformation. Google has a rule against apps that “capitalize on a natural disaster” or “atrocity” or appears to “profit from a tragic event with no discernible benefit to the victims,” according to the report.
Other tech giants have also stepped up to combat the spread of coronavirus misinformation. Last week, Amazon added a CDC notice to searches for “coronavirus,” “COVID-19” or other related terms, which directs the shopper to the CDC’s resources regarding coronavirus protective measures. Social media platform TikTok has partnered with the World Health Organization to share reliable and timely public health advice and resources on its platform.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/healthcare-information-technology/apple-reportedly-rejecting-coronavirus-apps-that-aren-t-made-by-hospitals-governments.html

Online pharmacy to offer 500 generic drugs for $5 monthly, delivery included

An online pharmacy called Ro is piloting a program to ship consumers generic drugs for $5 per prescription per month with no need for insurance, according to CNBC.
Ro is a startup company that began by shipping generic erectile dysfunction drugs, but it is now expanding to offer more than 500 generic drugs, a source familiar with the plans told CNBC.
The company said it will offer generics such as metformin for managing blood sugar or atorvastatin for high cholesterol for a flat rate of $5 per prescription per month. The $5 price tag also includes the cost of shipping.
Ro has $170 million in capital, according to CNBC, but it is unclear how it is able to offer the drugs for $5. Becker’s Hospital Review has reached out to the pharmacy for further comment and will update this story accordingly.
“In order to make this a profitable pharmacy business, Ro will need to scale up to tens of millions of prescriptions to achieve scale-based efficiencies,” Stephen Buck, co-founder of GoodRx, an online platform that provides users with coupons for significant price cuts on prescription drugs, told CNBC. “But if customers like the experience, they may be able to get there pretty fast.”
Ro has three pharmacies right now, but plans to expand to more than 10 by the end of the year, CNBC reported.
Ro reportedly is testing the service with a small number of users and plans to launch the program to the general public in the “coming weeks.”
Read the full article here.
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/pharmacy/online-pharmacy-to-offer-500-generic-drugs-for-5-monthly-delivery-included.html