Newly formed UpHealth Holdings, Inc. begins trading on NYSE.
Indian digital health firm Glocal Healthcare has joined hands with four US companies to form a new publicly traded healthcare entity in the United States.
The newly founded UpHealth Holdings, Inc. began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker “UPH” on Thursday, June 10, 2021. Its stocks were trading at $9.29 per share at 10:30 am EDT on Friday.
Glocal is a social venture focused on bringing quality healthcare to rural India through a combination of primary and secondary care hospitals, digital dispensaries and technology. It was founded in 2010 by Sabahat Azim, a physician and former Indian Administrative Service official.
Initially, UpHealth was formed by Glocal and three other companies: Thrasys, an integrated care management platform; BHS & Transformations, a tech enabled behavioral health company; and MedQuest, a full service ePharmacy capabilities serving complex patient populations.
On June 9, UpHealth Holdings, Inc announced the completion of its previously announced business combinations with Cloudbreak Health, LLC and GigCapital2, Inc.
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With the completion of our business combinations, we are now in the position to accelerate the expansion of our unique digital care management model,” said Dr. Ramesh Balakrishnan, Chief Executive Officer of UpHealth Holdings. “With access to significant growth capital allowing us to rapidly deploy our solutions that connect the dots across the care continuum, UpHealth, Inc., as a public company, will have a stronger capital structure and a public currency to drive both organic and inorganic growth strategies.”
“This combination gives us the opportunity to live our mission on a global scale, resolving health disparities, reshaping healthcare and powering its digital transformation,” said Jamey Edwards, Chief Executive Officer of CloudBreak Health.
“We look forward to putting all of UpHealth’s digital health solutions at the fingertips of clinical teams worldwide, delivering a more engaging and satisfying healthcare experience, pioneering new care models
and moving healthcare to how it should be: caring, connected and cost effective.”
“We are very excited to complete these business combinations with the strong support of stockholders and look forward to helping the UpHealth team accelerate its growth as a public company by utilizing GigCapital’s private-to-public equity methodology to drive shareholder value. The transaction proceeds will expand sales and marketing, fund development to accelerate product offerings, and inorganic growth through accretive M&As,” aid Dr. Avi Katz, Founding Managing Partner of GigCapital Global and Executive Chairman of GigCapital2.
UpHealth is positioning as “a global comprehensive digital health technology and tech-enabled services platform that empowers providers, health systems and payers globally to manage care for people with complex medical, behavioral and social needs, while dramatically improving access to primary care,” according to a statement issued by the company.
“We are honored to partner with GigCapital2 to allow UpHealth, a rapidly growing, global, and profitable digital health leader, to continue to increase its impact at scale in the global healthcare market ripe for much needed change and innovation,” said Kathuria, co-founder and co-Chairman of UpHealth, in a statement provided to the American Bazaar. “Glocal’s innovative healthcare solutions will help reduce the disparities seen in healthcare in developing world and rural America.”
Kathuria, a prominent Indian American physician, investor and entrepreneur, said he met Azim three years ago and “was thoroughly impressed and how he had built Glocal to be one of the largest digital healthcare providers in South Asia.” He added that Azim “will continue to grow UpHealth digital healthcare solutions to become the largest player in India and Africa.”
“Sabahat was named social entrepreneur of the year by the World Economic Forum for his pioneering work in India,” said Kathuria.
READ: Indian American entrepreneur Dr. Kiran Patel invests $60 million in medical device company (October 11, 2018)
“UpHealth is a combined vision of Glocal and our partners to make healthcare available to everyone, everywhere and at any time — breaking the barriers of language, distance and economic power,” said Azim. “We intend to scale up healthcare so much and so efficiently that most people and for the most vulnerable, every government or community should be able to access high quality healthcare. Healthcare should be a basic human right and technology can help achieve the super efficiencies needed to make the right into a reality. That’s our short-term, mid-term and long-term goal.”
Each company that is now part of Uphealth brings to the table different expertise and specialty, creating a differentiated and sophisticated digital platform.
In India, Glocal has pioneered the use of several healthcare technologies, including Telemedicine, Clinical Decision SupportSystems, Internet of Things-based remote examination, Point of Care Device-based instant investigations and automated dispensing to create a comprehensive digital primary care system. It is contracted in 12 countries to provide the tech and infra platform to enable healthcare access with affordability.
MedQuest adds personalized compounded medicines to the equation, while BHS Transformations provides digital behavioral health, CloudBreak bridges language divides and Thrasys helps provide population health.
In India, Glocal will continue its operations as a subsidiary of UpHealth. All its international contracts will continue without any changes, said Azim.
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