DeepMind’s Plan to Transfer Entire Data to Google Sparks Renewed Concerns

In 2016, AI lab DeepMind of Alphabet in London had created a historical past with its AlphaGo software program defeating Go creation. Recently, the company mentioned regarding handing off a comparatively less complex software program problem. This is basically regarding a healthcare app benefitting the hospital employees that is known as Streams and is examined by the UK hospitals. That mission along with its employees will be transferred to Google, Sister Company of DeepMind. The recent announcement resulted in an outcry from the private researchers along with authorized constraints based on the transfer, thereby illustrating challenges that Google has been facing with increasing data-usage working model in an extra delicate business of healthcare.

Development of Streams

Google has appointed David Feinberg, veteran healthcare government, who has led Pennsylvania well-being system Geisinger for unifying its scattered well-being initiatives. A spokesperson from DeepMind has mentioned that transfer of Streams to Google would not lead to any changes in mission’s stringent controls on knowledge use, which stays below management of its related hospitals.

Google had acquired DeepMind for nearly $650 million. The following year, the company turned out to be a part of Alphabet, and thereby began its operations with Royal Free hospital, which is in North London. The mission was to minimize death rates from the acute kidney damage cases. The project blended around the app known as Streams, which alerts the staffs in cases when patients show up early signs of condition and rapidly earned regulatory scrutiny.

The project’s data-sharing contract offers DeepMind with full-fledged access and 5years of extended health records for approximately 1.6Million individuals. Despite the magnificent support of healthcare organizations and regulators for shaping healthcare plans by Google, there are possibilities that real oversights wouldn’t be exercised by DeepMind. Sickening and aging populations in UK and US are significantly driving healthcare systems for working with the tech firms, in order to reduce costs, but the left the ill-equipped for monitoring data usage. Furthermore, data and medical authorities also seem out of depth. On a general perspective basis, current ethical and regulatory standards are not effective for digital health world.

Legal Complications Surrounding Streams

Several legal complications have been surrounding the planned adsorption of Google with regards to Streams, resulting in tech companies being unable to roll out their own data-centric strategies without hindrance. Google has been facing restrictions with accessing clinical data than online activities. In Europe and US, healthcare data are subjected to exclusive protections. Under the data protection law of UK, DeepMind doesn’t hold any control on the clinical data that are crunched by Streams but its partners are. Federal HIPAA law in US prevents organizations functioning with healthcare data from randomly adapting it to innovative and new purposes.

Amazon Developing Healthcare Delivery Company with Strategic Collaboration

Google is not the only tech company that is data-centric with increasing health care goals. Amazon has been taking immense efforts in collaborating with JP Morgan and Berkshire Hathaway for developing a healthcare delivery company. Slow digitization of the healthcare facility has reached a level where the tech industry data experts can substantially improve efficiency and diagnosis.

Notable Moves by Google

Google has recently taken up projects with regards to AI software for diagnosing eye disease across India, thereby launching a mobile software that helps in health-tracking. This in turn would benefit in competing with HealthKit of Apple for iPhones. DeepMind has put up a point that the data would not be connected to any Google services or accounts or even for any commercial purposes such as insurance or advertising.

New Technology Links Chronic Inflammation Issues with Higher Risk of Disease and Reduced Lifespan

Researchers from leading biotech company Nightingale Health have successfully studied a new genetic marker (GlycA) for chronic inflammation, with their proprietary blood testing technology and have linked the marker to the risk of reduction in lifespan and some organ related diseases. Aiming towards separating fact from fiction, researchers have been increasingly immersing themselves in efforts to clarify links between disease and inflammation.

With growing emphasis on chronic inflammation in the field of health and wellness, on its role in physical and mental health issues ranging from heart disease to anxiety, researchers have also been increasingly focusing their attention between inflammation and organ related diseases. Towards this end, Nightingale’s blood testing technology which can accurately measure glycoprotein acetyls or GlycA is found to be a stable marker to be used for accurate diagnosis.

What is Glycoprotein Acetyls (GlycA)?

Glycoprotein acetyls, also known as GlycA is a newly discovered biomarker based on the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance. It provides healthcare professionals indications with regards to inflammation by displaying the number of n-acetyl groups that can be found in glycoproteins within the body.

If high levels of glycoprotein acetyls are found in a healthy body, it can strongly indicate a highly active response to the immune system towards issues such as a strong bacterial infection. In cases where low grade, chronic inflammation can be observed, glycoprotein acetyls could mark the increased risk of a host of diseases that might affect the internal organs. This makes it a crucial fixture in the field of public research on health in the coming years.

GlycA has been found to be a highly useful marker for preventive measures and timely treatments for chronic inflammation related health issues, and also in the early identification of high risk patients from other relatively healthy counterparts, particularly for life threatening health issues such as diabetes-mellitus type 2 or cardiovascular disease.

Glycoprotein acetyls can also be associated with a broad range of incident diseases and it can be used to find the accurate level of risk of reduced lifespan in patients who have gone through an angiography process.

GlycA to Act as Major Factor in Disease Predictions

In a recent study which sought to find out if GlycA can be used effectively to predict the risk of diseases among general population, scientists measured GlycA levels in the blood of 11,861 Finnish subjects in conjunction with their electronic health records. The results revealed that increased levels of GlycA could be linked to major organ related diseases including chronic renal failure, heart disease, and alcoholic liver disease. In regards to identifying risk of reduced life expectancy, the results also showed that measuring GlycA raised the chances of identifying patients who were at the risk of cardio-vascular disease related mortality by as much as five times.

Dr. Peter Wurtz, the Scientific Director at Nightingale Health stated that GlycA has been found to have significant potential to predict the onset of several diseases as a marker for chronic inflammation in a large number of studies, each with thousands of human subjects. The findings from the latest research from Nightingale Healthcare will provide great importance to the analysis of more than 500,000 samples GlycA in national UK bio-bank and other clinical applications worldwide, which is anticipated to provide a greater understanding about these genetic links.

Traditional blood tests measure very limited markers including cholesterol and glucose, while Nightingale’s blood test procedure does a whole lot more by analyzing 220 bio markers, thereby enhancing the capabilities of predicting the risk of diseases more accurately.

Business Entities across the UK Display Alarm as Brexit Deal Seems to Fall Apart Following Resignations

Prominent business leaders around the United Kingdom have expressed growing alarm as the draft Brexit agreement, which was largely touted as the only chance to preserve stability in trading between the UK and the EU threated to fall apart following the resignations of Brexit minister Dominic Raab and pensions minister Esther McVey along with other junior ministers.

The resignations came within just 12 hours of Prime Minster Theresa May announcing that her cabinet had agreed to the terms set in the draft. The development once again set stage for Britain leaving the European Union without a deal before March 2020, sending the value of the British Pound and stock prices in the region plunging. The pound went down by 1.8 per cent against the US dollar during the early evening trading, and has a good chance of going down even further.

Why a Deal with the European Union is Important for Business

Germany-based automobile manufacturer stated that it still hoped that all parties involved would work towards a final agreement to maintain a frictionless trade framework on which numerous international production networks are based. However, with the uncertainty in the political environment, the company preparing itself for a no-deal Brexit, which it considers as a worst-case scenario.

A deal is on immense importance to the UK, owing to the fact that the European Union is their biggest trading partner, which cumulatively accounts for 53% of imports and 44% of exports. A failure to achieve a deal with the EU could disrupt efficient supply chains that have been used by the defense, automotive, and aerospace industries among others for the past 45 years.

Calling Theresa May’s government as ‘the most disastrous’, business leaders are concerned that a no-deal Brexit would cause great difficulty to large scale industries, by increasing costs and complexities arising from red tape thereby affecting the regional markets adversely in a significant way.

Business Leaders Found Theresa May’s Deal to be Favorable

Industry leaders and representatives from Diageo, Royal Mail and the London Stock Exchange who had been briefed about the draft agreement by ministers, had largely shown a positive response calling the deal ‘the best chance of a compromise’ to make the transition period secure and avoid chaos.

Executive chairman of Cicero, the public affairs firm representing top financial firms in the UK stated that although most business executives did not like Theresa May’s deal, most have come to terms that it is the only viable option at present.

The sudden spate of resignations has put a number of businesses in the state of horror, as it is extremely difficult to negotiate another deal in the time left, leaving a feeling of instability in the atmosphere.

Even as a number of senior politicians called on Theresa May to quit, Jurgen Maier the UK chief of Seimens emailed his statement: We hope all sides keep calm, look at the facts, and move to support this draft to provide UK business with greater certainty.

The Next Step for the Brexit Deal

Across the board, legislators have looked down at May’s deal, feeling that the result would make Britain subject to EU rules, with hardly any say, including the alignment of Northern Ireland with the EU to avoid the formation of a hard border.

While senior executives are still holding out hope that the deal goes through before the end of the year, others were looking at other options on the table including an extension of the negotiation period, a national election, or a second referendum.

Clearly, the current situation is weakening confidence in the country and reinforcing uncertainty in the market. A clear resolution is the need of the hour.

Qatar’s WISH Tackles ‘Human-Centered’ Healthcare Redesign

Nearly 2,000 innovators, government officials and healthcare professionals form over 100 regions had gathered for discussing about the medical innovation across the areas including mental health, viral disease as well as human-centered restructures of the global healthcare systems. The gathering had taken place on 13th and 14th November 1028 as part of WISH (World Innovation Summit for Health) 2018. WISH is a part of Qatar Foundation’s undertaking for fostering “evidence-based” practices and ideas in medical field.

 Plans Griped Up In the Session

Panellists during the group discussion had developed plans for griping up innovative ways for restructuring the healthcare systems and most importantly relations between patients and healthcare providers. This approach consequently helps in redefining relationship between patients, doctors and healthcare institutions as well for creating healthy human-concentrated services with the patients as applicants and co-managing their health issues.

The panellists discussed about the modern healthcare systems where the patients are not given the choice for treating their illness themselves and doctors are framed as playing an “all-knowing” role. However, the new healthcare structure would approach patients as individuals and not revenue streams.

Many companies such as Prescribe are focusing on healthcare structuring and are of the point of view that countries such as Middle East & Africa shouldn’t be adopting Western medical systems. Stacy Chang, Dell Medical School’s designing executive director at Austin University of Texas had mentioned that socioeconomic status of the patients should enable them to gain better information be eliminating the need for physicians, which in turn would lower treatment costs as well.

Panellists further outlined regarding Viral Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B, which is a prominent global health threat today that is affecting millions of people on an annual basis to be successfully eliminated by 2030.

 Restraints in the Path to Achieving Threat-Free Diseases Phase

Some barriers that are a pain in the path towards catering the aim of eliminating life-threatening diseases is mainly lack of political commitments and limited financial resources. Introducing fake drugs is another major drawback that is leading to mass failure of treatments on a larger basis.

Detection of Fake Drugs by Global Good

Bill Gates Foundation’s sister organization, Global Good outlined regarding its technical innovations and advancements that would be highly beneficial for addressing health requirements of the patients, mainly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The organization also displayed a handheld spectrometer device that is utilized in analyzing and detecting counterfeit medicine pills.

Increasing number of substandard and fake drugs have been killing thousands of individuals across the globe, which in turn also leads to rapid increase in the spreading of epidemic diseases in the poor regions. Executive vice president of Global Good, Maurizio Vecchione had mentioned that his organization has been functioning as a transitional means, which facilitates health laboratories and technologies to the priority regions such as Asia, Ethiopia, Uganda and Nigeria.

 Process: A pill is kept on the top of machine and within few seconds it indicates whether the medicine is fake or original, depending on the data that is stored in the connected mobile phone. Vecchione further mentioned that Global Good has been able to increase its local businesses as well as jobs in many regions with its high-tech healthcare services.

Speakers in Doha, Qatar were inclusive of several high-profile dignitaries such as Michael Phelps, American gold medalist swimmer who had discusses on the mental health issues, Muna al-Hussein, HRH Princess and former Ireland president, Mary Robinson.

Person-centered care is expected to take a toll in the healthcare industry as the new approach of “what matters to you?” from “what is the matter?” would help in gaining significant patient attraction. This in turn benefits in firming up the relationship between healthcare providers and patients, thereby offering satisfactory and appealing treatment.

Canadian Businesses Welcome Tax Breaks by Trudeau Government with Open Arms

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently spent C$14 Billion on tax relief for the country’s businesses. The fiscal update that was revealed showed capital investment write-offs that are implemented on a temporary basis, alongside a promise to push export markets, create direct cash sources for businesses, and cut down on red tape.

Businesses Claim They are Pleased But Not Fully Satisfied

The tax breaks were announced as a move to counter the increasing competitiveness in comparison to the United States, after President Trump cut corporate taxes in the USA earlier this year. Businesses across Canada showed their support towards this mini-budget development, while maintaining that the government still had a lot of work to do.

The business sector sent out calls to the Trudeau government to work more extensively on tax reforms, reduce the country’s fiscal deficit, streamline business rules and regulations, and resolve the oil price crisis currently plaguing the province of Alberta.

Alberta’s oil price crisis is gaining importance owing to its impact on the entire country, as Alberta loses millions of dollars in the form of royalty arising from extremely large discounts on locally produced heavy crude, in comparison to benchmark prices of the United States.

Tax Breaks to Be Beneficial for All States Including Alberta Claims Government

Perrin Beatty, President of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said that while the Canadian government has done quite a bit for accelerated write-offs for capital investments, there is room for more to be done. The measures will result in investments in the manufacturing sector that can be completely written off, and the marginal tax rates will be reduced to strongly compete with that of the United States, thereby helping businesses in all sectors including oil and gas in Alberta.

On the other hand, the national fiscal deficit has now grown to C$83.5 in the past five years, and is estimated to grow to a massive C$765 Billion by 2024.

The tax breaks are largely considered as a good step to strengthen businesses in Canada at least on a temporary basis, along with the tentative agreement of continental trade that has been made with Mexico and the United States. Senior economist Brian De Pratto has cautioned that while the government’s response to market competitiveness will be a useful funding initiative, it is a little worrying that the government has decided to spend most or all of its fiscal gains

Tata Capital Hopes to Secure 200 Million Dollars with the Tata Capital Healthcare Fund II

Fund aims to raise capital from the overseas and domestic market

Tata Capital has unveiled the Tata Capital Healthcare Fund II, its second healthcare fund, with which the company hopes to raise a massive funding of $200 Million from overseas and domestic investors. According to reports, Tata company officials stated that the fund theme revolves around the healthcare and life sciences sector in India and aims at domestic competency and consumption.

According to one of the fund partners at Tata Capital Healthcare Fund, the company’s primary focus will center on growth fund investment with a ticket size of nearly 12 to 15 million dollars. The fund potentially targets 10 to 12 investments in segments that include diagnostics, medical devices API, and pharmaceuticals.

Fund partners express faith in the fund’s potential

Visalakshi Chandramouli, a fund partner at Tata Capital Healthcare Fund expressed her confidence over the potential of the fund in making a gross Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of not less than 20 to 25 percent. The Tata Capital Healthcare Fund I, the first healthcare fund by the company introduced in the year 2010 and closed in 2012, had Assets Under Management (AUM) valuing $70 Million. The average ticket size of the first healthcare fund valued at $8 Million. With this initial healthcare fund, the company invested in a total of nine companies. Four out of these nine companies made profitable exits, where Tata Capital now aims at exiting the fifth along with the sixth in the coming six months. Chandramouli said that Tata Capital was able to offer greater returns on the capital invested by investors, and yet still hold the other five investments that they target closing in a few years. She further illustrated that the first healthcare fund is continually tracking a gross IRR of 33 percent on the realized investment.

The investment strategy of the first healthcare fund aimed at two themes including domestic competency and consumption. The fund focused on firms generating a significant cash flow from the domestic market, under the domestic consumption theme and the domestic competency theme; tracking the key benefits of firms in terms of technology or manufacturing.

Healthcare funds creating opportunities for greater returns

Such healthcare funds are changing the face of the healthcare sector and are bringing in more capital for business and product offering improvements. With such funds, companies will not just be able to invest in new domains for business growth but also gain increasing profits

Cutting-edge PoCEID Technology to Benefit Newborn Babies in Africa

Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of Kenya was recently accompanied by Isaura Nyus, her Mozambican counterpart for commissioning the PoCEID (Point of Care Early Infant Diagnosis) technology at JOOTRH (Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital) in Kisumu. Soon after commissioning the new facility, the Kenyan First Lady introduced the National Point of Care Technologies Roadmap. Under this mission, millions of newly born babies throughout the region would be able to obtain access to the new HIV testing technology named PoCEID.

According to sources, immense efforts have been taken by the NASCOP (National Aids and STI control Programme) and Ministry of Health as they have adopted the new PoCEID technology for HIV testing purposes. PoCEID is expected to offer immediate results that will help healthcare professionals administer life-saving antiretroviral treatment to newborn babies exposed to HIV virus.

Demand for PoCEID Technology over PCR Method

PoCEID technology is basically replacing PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) testing utilized for detecting antigens in blood and the results under PCR testing technique come out only after 4-10 days. According to Dr. Peter Okoth, Chief Executive Officer of JOOTRH, PCR technology irregularly falsifies results for newborn babies soon after picking antigens of the mother. Yet, till date, HIV testing has been done for newborn babies under PCR technology at KEMRI laboratories, located at Kisian, 15kms away from JOOTRH.

Launch of Second Medical Safari of Beyond Zero

The Kenyan First Lady and her Mozambican counterpart were in Kisumu for launching the second Medical Safari of Beyond Zero, which is a new model for healthcare delivery. In this model, medical service providers gather together for offering specified services to the public at their designated locations. Medical Safari is a three-day camp, which is held at Jomo Kenyatta Sports Ground. Unveiling of Kisumu County eMTCT (Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission) and the National POCEID roadmap was done at the venue. The eMTCT framework helps fast track collective action for addressing challenges of AIDS and HIV in the region, where disease prevalence has been indicated as nearing 8.7%.

Development of such medical camps and innovative technologies would benefit in bringing healthcare services and providers closer to women as well as their families, in order to cater to the crucial health challenges that they experience. These free-of-charge medical camps also help in guaranteeing safe delivery along with immunization of babies and registration of kids experiencing disabilities. These efforts are expected to gear up towards significant contribution in Universal Health Care in the long run.

Guidelines on the Use of Instant Messaging Apps in Healthcare Issued by UK’s National Health Service

The United Kingdom’s state run National Health Service has issued updates on the guidelines for their staff on the usage of instant messaging apps and programs by certified clinicians that are to be followed in settings for acute care, to maintain established privacy policies in regards to patient data.

With the NHS recognizing the need for instant messaging software, especially in emergency situations which require quick response, making them an essential aspect of the NHS tools, matching compliance with confidentiality regulations is seeing increasing importance.

Controversial Findings in CommonTime Report Set Off NHS Move

The guidelines were put forth by the NHS following the release of findings in a CommonTime healthcare report on the subject, which found that a vast number NHS staff rely greatly on apps including iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Also, a number of trusts associated to the National Health Service did not have any policies about the use of messaging apps including WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. The report also stated that more than 95% of practicing clinicians used these messaging apps to receive and transmit potentially confidential patient data without any security measures in place.

In response to the findings of the CommonTime report, the NHS has set up guidelines to help healthcare practitioners within the UK to determine whether an instant messaging app is appropriate to use for healthcare purposes. These steps aim to protect healthcare practitioners from regulatory investigations regarding the safeguards on patient confidentiality.

Andrew Miles, who is a consultant general surgeon and a Royal College of Surgeons Council Member, stated that: “Patient safety is enhanced when NHS staff can quickly communicate confidential patient information between teams, such as by instant messaging.”

Patient Data Confidentiality Policies to Structure Guidelines

Some of the things that clinicians need to check in an app are end-user verification, pre-set standards of encryption, and password protection among others. In addition, the app needs to have capabilities for remote data wipes and auto deletion of messages after pre-set times, in cases of theft or loss of device.

The guidelines also include a number of specific standards for the use of apps, including the transmission to information to the right person or group and the regular review of group membership, to eliminate chances of miscommunication from similar names in address books.

NHS staff also has to keep notifications from popping up on a locked screen, not share access of the mobile device, while keeping clinical records separately, and deleted messages after the transcription process is complete. Staff must remember that conversations held on instant messaging platforms can be subject to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.

In addition to this, the guidelines state that instant messaging apps being used by healthcare practitioners cannot be permitted to connect with social media or photo libraries of the user’s device. Two-factor authentication is also pushed to be mandatory for such apps. The use of third party instant messaging apps is to be permitted only if the healthcare organization does not provide an appropriate alternative for use. At present, more than 50% do not offer any suitable alternative.

The guidelines are strong on emphasizing that they are not endorsing any particular instant messaging app service, but that the focus is on what clinicians must keep in mind when looking to use instant messaging apps on mobiles.

These measures are anticipated to protect healthcare organizations associated with the NHS from threats such as the WannaCry attack of 2017, which resulted in the loss of 10,000 records of patients registered in the NHS at the time.

China Creates Artificial Sun, Sets New Temperature Record – A New Milestone for Nuclear Fusion

An announcement made by a team of China’s nuclear scientists from the Institute of Plasma Physics stated that their Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak, also known as EAST has reached a new record-setting temperature of 100 million degree Celsius, to maintain a nuclear fusion process which produces more energy than what it consumes.

Feat to Set Stage for Efficient and Super Clean Energy Sources for the World

The original Sun of our solar system in comparison reaches only around 5,500 degree Celsius. The achievement by the Chinese scientists is widely considered to be an important step in forwarding the science of nuclear fusion, for not just China, but also the rest of the world. Nuclear fusion reactors are thought to be a feasible solution to the global energy scarcity issues.

If done right, the process will be able to generate extremely high amounts of energy, without any greenhouse gas emission or long-lasting waste of a radioactive nature. In addition to this, nuclear fusion also eliminates the risks usually associated with nuclear fission processes such as catastrophic meltdowns and the weaponization of nuclear fission materials. The news of the successful nuclear fusion reaction vent viral rapidly on Chinese social media.

Major Ramifications for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor

The results achieved during the EAST experiment is considered to be very important for the implementation of the next international nuclear fusion science experiment, which will be conducted at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER in Southern France. The project is built in collaboration of 35 countries including China, and it is anticipated to produce 10 times the amount of power that is required to run the system. The ITER is expected to create its first plasma and begin operating by 2025.

How China Made the Nuclear Process a Success

While on one hand most conventional nuclear reactors rely on a fission process, where uranium atoms are pushed into a chain reaction to split and produce energy, on the other, nuclear fusion turns the process on its head, producing energy by forcing atoms to fuse or merge.

The method used by the scientists from the Institute of Plasma Physics utilizes the EAST device known as a tokamak, which replicates the process nuclear fusion as it occurs naturally in the sun and stars. The device has a diameter of 8 meters and is 11 meters high, along with a weight of 360 tons.

The machine makes use of super-heavy and house-heavy atomic variations of hydrogen, namely deuterium and tritium, which are heated to extremely high temperatures by utilizing high energy electric currents that forcibly separate electrons from their atoms, which results in a plasma state of hydrogen ions.

High powered magnets that line the walls of the tokamak further push the hydrogen ion plasma into a tiny area in the structure, so that the ions are in high concentration and have a much higher chance of fusing together, and in the process generating a tremendous amount of energy. This energy can be harnessed at a power plant and be used to produce clean and pollution free electricity.

The team of Chinese nuclear scientists stated that although they were able to achieve the record breaking temperature through the use of some innovative techniques of plasma heating and control, the state was kept sustained for only 10 seconds, providing enough evidence that the milestone of 100 million degree Celsius was truly possible.

The news comes barely a month following the shocking announcement by China on their intention to launch an artificial moon in to space by 2020 that would be bright enough to replace streetlights.

AHEL to Diversify Its Pharmacy Business

AHEL (Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Ltd) has planned to restructure its business exercise by divesting its pharmacy business by forming it as a separate entity and naming it as APL (Apollo Pharmacies Ltd). The newly formed company will turn out to be a completely owned subsidiary of AMPL (Apollo Medicals Pvt Ltd). Apollo management has mentioned that the new entity is just front-end division of the pharmacy business, which is valued at nearly Rs.5.27Bn.

New investors have taken up on nearly 75% stake for approximately 1.06Bn in Apollo Medicals Pvt Ltd, while parent company, the Apollo Hospitals has been planning to pull up nearly 25% stake in AMPL. The new investors are inclusive of Enam Securities, Jhelum Investment Fund, DSP BlackRock’s chairman and investment banker Hemendra Kothari and these investors will be owning the remaining 75%.

Proposed Reorganization to Beef up Pharmacy Retail Business

Apollo has been taking immense efforts in unlocking the potential of its pharmacy business by sharply focusing on retail sector as well. The company further is planning to enter into e-commerce zone that is basically its omni-network strategy for providing consumers with an option for picking up on physical or online stores. In the forthcoming years, according to Shobana Kamineni, AHEL’s executive vice-chairperson, the company will be looking for new or strategic equity investors, while IPO remains a choice to be explored.

The company had clearly stated that the proposed reorganization will not be holding back any material impact on AHEL’s financials as backend business that is related with the pharmacy business inhibits nearly 85% of business economics, which will be help by AHEL in future as well. The propose move will be highly beneficial for Apollo as it will comply with prescribed FDI (foreign direct investment) limits, which in turn helps in further expanding pharmacy retail business. Apollo is expecting the new organization to be operative by April 2019. Apollo had mentioned that this spin-off will enable the company in maximizing stakeholder value as well as set platform for the ‘value discovery’ pharmacy retail business.

Pharmacy Division Sales Growth: Consolidated Information

The pharmacy business consisted of nearly 38% of Apollo’s Rs.8, 243.5Cr revenues in the FY18. Pharmacy business has increased by 17% on Y-o-Y basis with 4.5% EBITDA margin, which is comparatively lesser than company’s EBITDA of 9.6%. Organized pharmacy retail holds less than 5% of $15Bn domestic pharmaceutical market of India, which is likely to increase by 12% CAGR by over the next 10year time-span that would be predominantly driven by volume growth.

The company has been currently experiencing nearly 27% growth in business with improved operational performance of flagship hospital business. The merged EBITDA rose at 11.3%, while the hospital business EBITDA rose at 18.2%. New hospitals revenue growth increased by 23% with majority revenue share from Tamil Nadu, which consisted of Rs.979.8Cr. Shares of Apollo has increased by 1.82% for closing at Rs.11, 66.15 on BSE.

Forward Looking Plans

Shobana Kamineni has been focusing on creating a multi-year development platform with the expansion of pharmacy outlets to be nearly 5,000 from current 3,167 in the next 5years and is also anticipating a turnover of Rs.100Bn revenue. She further stated that approximately 20% revenue growth would be from the online segment. In addition, Apollo is planning to enhance its private label business to over 12%. Apollo will be entering into brand licensing contract with the APL for licensing Apollo Pharmacy to online pharmacy operations and frontend stores.

Spin-offs have outperformed broadly in the business world with increasing unique investment opportunities expected to take place. By spinning-off pharmacy business, AMPL can remove debt from balance sheet, thereby improving its total margin levels, which in turn becomes valuable for investors.