Deals, Investments                                                                                                                                    

There were 655 deals representing a total reported transaction value of $48.1 billion during the third quarter of 2019 within the market for healthcare service businesses that support the life sciences industry.  Veeva’s $430 million cash purchase of Crossix Solutions highlights the growing interest from pharmaceutical companies for actionable, real-time access to patient data in a robust analytics platform.

Similarly the purchase of Merck’s Aptus Health by KKR-owned WebMD demonstrates continuing interest among pharmaceutical marketers in improving their access to health care providers at the point of care.  Other transactions described below show on-going interest by both strategic and financial buyers of robust businesses in digital therapeutics, telehealth as well as medical education.

Crossix, data science business, acquired by Veeva for $430 million cash

Veeva Systems, (NYSE:VEEV) a life sciences industry cloud player, is acquiring Crossix, makers of a patient data and analytics platform used by pharmaceutical marketers. Under the terms of the agreement, Veeva will acquire Crossix for a purchase price of $430 million, paid all in cash, subject to customary purchase price adjustments. In addition, certain Crossix employees will receive long term equity retention grants valued at approximately $120 million in the aggregate. The acquisition is expected to close in November.

• The deal is meant to bring more expertise in patient data and data science into Veeva. The Crossix analytics platform aims to improve marketing effectiveness for pharmaceutical brands. The platform connects health and non-health data for more than 300 million US patients, such as Rx, OTC, clinical, claims, consumer, hospital, and media data
• Veeva said Crossix will operate as an independent business unit under its current brand led by Crossix CEO Asaf Evenhaim. The company will remain headquartered in New York and also maintain its operations in Israel and Belarus.

ZDNet

WebMD acquiring Aptus medical education platform

Internet health information provider WebMD plans to acquire medical education platform Aptus Health, owned by Merck.

• The acquisition includes Aptus’ brand Univadis, an education platform for delivering medical news, conference information and research disseminated to 4 million healthcare professionals around the world.
• It also includes EngagedMedia, which supports patient engagement and adherence through a mobile messaging platform.

Fierce Health

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