MedAdvisor eyes off US health insurance market with new distribution deal

Medtech company MedAdvisor (ASX:MDR) had some deal-flow this morning, announcing a partnership with NASDAQ-listed HMS Holdings Corp.

The three-year agreement is a distribution play for MDR, giving it the opportunity to integrate its technology with HMS.

The HMS service provides customer engagement strategies connecting over 350 insurance companies and 40 government agencies with end-users that receive medical treatment.

“HMS’ engagement solution has deployed 865 million unique outreaches since 2016, and its highly scalable and proprietary technology systems can handle more than 1 million patient outreaches per week,” MedAdvisor said.

The company said its partnership with HMS (which owns a stake in MedAdvisor) would create a revenue-generating opportunity, by deploying MDR’s platform to broaden the scope of HMS’ communication tools beyond simple messaging to include “the use of web-based content, SMS and other rich content”.

MedAdvisor’s core software is a “virtual pharmacist” service that allows customers to organise their medication and scripts via smartphone.

CEO Robert Read said the deal opened up a broader addressable market for its own health platform, as well as drove additional revenue from the HMS outreach integration.

“MedAdvisor expects that there is strong market appetite for this service and over time could represent a significant portion of the existing outreach volume,” the company said.

Shares in MDR rose by more than 10 per cent in morning trade to 56.5c, down from 2020 highs above 65c at the start of June.

In other ASX medtech news today:

Dual-listed Alterity Therapeutics (ASX:ATH) (which also trades on the NASDAQ) surged by more than 1,000 per cent in morning trade before going into a trading halt at 11:21am AEST.

It follows an announcement yesterday morning which was picked up by US investors overnight, where Alterity said it had received guidance from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) about the development pathway around phase II trials for its anti-Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) drug.

Shares in cancer-fighting pharma company Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) also rose more than 10 per cent, on news that its renal cancer imaging product (TLX250-CDx) had been granted a Breakthrough Therapy designation by the FDA.

Telix’s imaging technology uses Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to clarify whether cell masses identified in MRI tests are “clear cell renal cell cancer”.

“BT designation offers a number of significant benefits to Telix, including eligibility for Fast Track designation, more frequent and intensive interactions with the FDA, and the opportunity to submit a ‘rolling’ Biological Licence Application (BLA) for TLX250-CDx, where the application can be submitted in separate modules to streamline the FDA review process for approval,” Telix said.

And on the local regulatory front, medtech company Next Science (ASX:NXS) said its Bactisure surgical lavage had now been cleared by the Therapeutic Goods
Administration (TGA).

“The approval means that Bactisure will now be sold in Australia by Zimmer Biomet, a leading orthopaedic implant supplier, and Next Science’s appointed global distributor for the product,” the company said. Shares in the company rose 8.8 per cent to $1.36.