Insights

A Look at Recent Transactions Shaping the Future of Healthcare

This week's article provides a summary of recent healthcare M&A news for January 23, 2023. 

The healthcare industry is rapidly evolving, with the lines between the healthcare technology and services sectors blurring - creating the catalyst for innovation, transformation, and continued market activity. TripleTree's Healthcare M&A Weekly summarizes recent mergers, acquisitions, and investments shaping the future of healthcare.

To view previous healthcare M&A activity, please review last week's post: Healthcare M&A Weekly - January 17, 2023.

• ADARx Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego, California-based drug developer, has closed a $46M Series B round to advance its drug development pipeline as the company’s first product enters the clinic. The clinical stage biotechnology company develops RNA-targeting therapeutics. This Series B round was led by Ascenta Capital, with OrbiMed Advisors, SR One Capital Management, Lilly Asia Ventures and Sirona Capital also participating. Read more here.
• Aegis Sciences Corporation, a health care testing laboratory based in Nashville, Tenn., announced its acquisition of the HealthTrackRx’s toxicology line of business. Read more here.
• AllerVie Health, a Dallas-based provider of allergy and immunology services in the United States, has acquired Texas-based West Texas Allergy, expanding service reach to both Midland and Lubbock, Texas. With the acquisition of West Texas Allergy, AllerVie has a footprint in 12 states with 76 practice locations. Read more here.
• APRINOIA Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based clinical-stage neuroscience biotech company, has agreed to merge with blank-check company Ross Acquisition Corp II. The blank-check company was founded by former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who personally invested $7.5M through a convertible note and has committed to provide up to $12.5M of capital infusion at the closing of the Business Combination. APRINOIA focuses on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. Read more here.
• Avesi Partners made a growth investment in Muir Wood, a Petaluma, California-based premier provider of integrated, adolescent-focused behavioral health services. Avesi's investment will help the Company execute on its mission of leading the national effort to treat and reduce mental health disorders among adolescents. Read more here.
• Bausch + Lomb Corporation, a New Jersey-based eye health company, announced the acquisition of AcuFocus, a California-based ophthalmic medical device company. Read more here.
• Best of Care, a Quincy, Massachusetts-based home care and care management provider, has acquired Moving Mentor, an Amherst, Massachusetts-based move management, organizing and consulting company. Moving Mentor helps families, especially families with seniors, strategize, plan and carry out moves, which can be complicated when involving frail individuals with numerous comorbidities. Read more here.
• HGGC announced it has made a strategic growth investment in Dentive, a founder-run dental service organization (DSO) that provides management services to entrepreneurial, doctor-run general and specialty dental practices primarily in the western U.S. Dentive was founded in 2019 with a unique joint-ownership approach in which partner dentists are equity owners with full clinical autonomy to continue to run their practices. The Company now has nearly 70 locations across 9 states. Read more here. TripleTree served as financial advisor to HGGC for this transaction.
• Home Care Pulse (HCP), a provider of experience management, benchmarking, training, and reputation management for the post-acute care industry, announced the acquisitions of Activated Insights and Pinnacle Quality Insight. Activated Insights is a satisfaction analytics platform specializing in senior housing, while Pinnacle Quality Insight is an employee retention and customer satisfaction analysis provider for senior care and senior living organizations. The acquisition was enabled by Cressey & Company, the financial sponsor of HCP. Read more here.
• Inscripta, the Boulder, Colorado-based digital genome engineering company, has acquired two synthetic biology companies, Infinome Biosciences and Sestina Bio. This acquisition advances Inscripta's strategy to develop and commercialize bio-manufactured products for a broad spectrum of industrial and consumer markets. In April 2021, Inscripta raised $150M in a Series E financing round led by Fidelity and T. Rowe Price. Read more here.
• Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi-based sovereign investor, announced its investment in Dental Care Alliance (DCA), a US-based dental services organization, alongside funds managed by Harvest Partners, a US-based private equity firm focused on investing in middle-market companies. Founded in 1991, DCA has approximately 5,400 employees, including over 885 dentists in 22 states, and welcomes over 3.5 million patient visits per year, across 390 allied practices. Read more here.
• Pathalys Pharma, a private, late-stage biopharma company, based in Research Triangle Park, NC, announced that it has raised $150M in secured product financing and equity, led by Abingworth in both fundings. Also participating were Carlyle, OrbiMed, Catalys Pacific and DaVita Venture Group. The proceeds will support the pre-commercialization efforts of its upacicalcet treatment. Pathalys was originally co-founded by Catalys Pacific and DaVita Venture Group. Read more here.
• SetPoint Medical, a Valencia, California-based clinical-stage biomedical technology company, raised $80M in a funding round led by Norwest Venture Partners and Viking Global Investors. The Company focuses on finding treatments for chronic autoimmune diseases. The proceeds from the financing will be used to complete the company's ongoing RESET-RA trial and subsequent FDA regulatory submissions and early commercialization for the rheumatoid arthritis indication. Read more here.
• ShockWave Medical, a Santa Clara, California-based pioneer in the development of Intravascular Lithotripsy (IVL) to treat severely calcified cardiovascular disease, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Neovasc, a Richmond, British Columbia-based company focused on the minimally invasive treatment of refractory angina. Neovasc shareholders will receive $27.25 per common share in cash upfront, corresponding to an enterprise value of approximately $100M. Deferred payments are possible up to $47M on the achievement of future regulatory milestones. Read more here.
• The Stepping Stones Group, a Colorado-based provider of therapeutic, behavioral, autism, nursing and educational services backed by Five Arrows, has acquired Catalyst Speech Language Pathology, a provider of school-based speech-language pathology services in the greater Los Angeles area. Read more here.
• Technical Safety Services, a La Jolla, CA-based biotech firm and portfolio company of Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, announced that it has recently completed four strategic acquisitions. The Company has purchased Northeast Medical Consulting, an Ohio-based provider of medical gas testing and consulting services, Cornerstone Commissioning, a Massachusetts-based provider of commissioning, qualification, and validation engineering services, AIRTEST, a New Hampshire-based provider of testing and certification of cleanrooms and other contamination control technologies, and Quality Systems Integration, a Massachusetts-based provider of testing and certification services in controlled biotechnology and pharmaceutical environments. Read more here.
• Therma Bright, a Canada-based progressive medical diagnostic and device technology company, announced that it has signed a share purchase agreement with Inretio, an Israeli medical device start-up firm. Therma Bright is best known for the development of its rapid COVID-19 test, AcuVid™. Inretio is the developer of a blood clot retriever technology. Therma Bright has the right to invest up to $2M in cash and $500k in Therma Bright shares to own up to 25% in Inretio. Read more here.
• UPMC, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based medical center, is acquiring Santry, Ireland-based Sports Surgery Clinic (SSC), a leading independent hospital located in the Dublin suburbs. The Irish Times reported on the deal, noting that SSC had EUR 59.1M in 2021 revenue. The move will expand UPMC’s ability to provide orthopaedic and sports medicine care in Ireland. SSC currently has more than 40 consultants in orthopaedic surgery and allied specialties, supported by a team of more than 400 nurses, physiotherapists and other health care professionals. Read more here.

Transactions outlined in this summary highlight some of the key trends shaping the future of healthcare. Get the latest industry news from TripleTree every week.

This is a partial list of transaction activity across the healthcare industry and is not intended to be a complete listing. Transaction information was identified from various sources and TripleTree may or may not have acted as the financial advisor for the transactions listed. All product names, logos and brands are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this communication are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, logos and brands does not imply endorsement.