International Transactions

M3 of Japan buys Qualitative and Quantitative Fieldwork Services- QQFS- of Sweden

M3 is a large, publicly-held company that is part a social network for doctors (four million of them), part education channel for physicians and part panels for the pharma to reach the doctors in its network.

M3 has sales of over $750 million with an enterprise value of $9.2 billion. QQFS is a data collection company covering the Nordic region and it caters to healthcare and life science sectors.  

Johnson and Johnson buys surgical Process Institute (SPI) of Germany

The company engages in best practices checklist to standardize operations. SPI’s unique offerings have been shown to reduce surgery variability and the time spent in the operating room.

Artificial intelligence cardiac imaging tech firm, Analytics 4 Life, lands $25 million in funding bringing total capital raised to date to $40 million

Kingston, Ontario-based company helps physicians assess the presence of coronary artery disease without radiation, contrast agents and cardiac stress.

The technology scans signals naturally emitted by the body with synchronous array of seven sensors on the company’s proprietary collection device. The signal package is then sent to the cloud where it is analyzed by AI generating a personalized heart model of the patient. Pretty amazing technology which can replace very expensive and painful procedures.

Next gen CAR-T cell firm Autolus takes funding tally to $173 million in Series C

London-based CAR-T cell player Autolus has raised $80 million in a third-round financing that it says will fund proof-of-concept testing for three programs; namely, multiple myeloma, lymphoma and pediatric leukemia. Only a few weeks ago, we reported that FDA approved the first CAR-T cell therapy for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia or ALL. Watch for more funding in this exciting and life changing space.

Sinco Pharmaceutical of China receives $150 million in funding

The company provides marketing, promotion and channel management services for international pharma companies that plan to tap the Chinese market. Given the sheer size of the market, and the hunger for foreign companies to tap its potential, we think Sinco will be a successful enterprise.

B-Soft of China raises $140 million

The company has a comprehensive suite of HIS products ranging from administrative to clinical information systems as well as mobile solutions.

Chinese HIT companies are raising massive amounts of capital. We wonder if only the “crumbs” will be left for U.S. and European health tech companies wishing to enter the market.

Vios Medical of St. Paul, MN is acquired by Murata Electronics of Japan for $100 million

Vios develops tablet based wireless monitoring platforms for the entire care continuum. Murata is a large broad-based Japanese conglomerate with over $10 billion in sales. Healthcare is a new strategic focus for the company.

EXSCIENTA of United Kingdom raises $18 million

Using AI, the company has been able to automate the drug design-make-test process. The company claims that their solutions can achieve results in a quarter of the time of traditional approaches. We think there is a case to be made for solutions that target bringing biospecific small molecules and optimizing the initial chemical designs. We will be watching this space.

CathWorks of Israel receives $15 million Series B

CathWorks develops medical devices for the interventional cardiology market. The company’s technology is based on processing visual information and automatic multi- layered algorithms.