News and deal roundup: Microsoft’s $20B deal for Nuance; Cigna Evernorth finalizes MDLive; GoodRx buys HealthiNation; Papa’s $60M Series C

Our Big Deal is Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance Communications, a cloud and AI-based speech recognition company which has been a leader in healthcare for a few decades. Most recognizable are their Dragon and PowerScribe trade names. Microsoft is paying $56.00 per share, a 23 percent premium to the closing price of Nuance on 9 April, an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 bn. Closing is projected to be end of 2021 as subject to regulatory and final shareholder approvals.

Nuance and Microsoft have closely worked together for some time with Microsoft Cloud using Nuance speech recognition and Nuance clinical speech recognition offerings built on Microsoft Azure. Nuance claims that in the US, 55 percent of physicians, 75 percent of radiologists, and 77 percent of hospitals use their products. It’s a big but expected bet for Microsoft in healthcare against Apple that is expected to double Microsoft’s total addressable market (TAM) in the healthcare provider space to nearly $500 billion. It also adds enterprise AI expertise and customer engagement solutions in Interactive Voice Response (IVR), virtual assistants, and digital and biometric solutions for companies outside of healthcare. Microsoft release, Becker’s Health IT

Cigna closed its purchase of telehealth provider MDLive on 19 April. Purchase price and management transitions were not disclosed. MDLive will be part of Evernorth, Cigna’s health services portfolio. That portfolio includes Accredo, Express Scripts, Direct Health, fertility health, and more. Earlier coverage 27 February. Evernorth release, FierceHealthcare. 

GoodRx closed its purchase of health education video producer HealthiNation. Sale price was not disclosed. HealthiNation’s video library will reinforce GoodRx’s consumer information on prescription prices for better consumer decisions. Release, Mobihealthnews  

Senior services and socialization ecosystem Papa now has a brand new Series C of $60 million, via Tiger Global Management. Papa connects seniors with Papa Pals, a ‘family on demand’ that appear to be heavily college students. Papa Pals visit with them and provide in-person and virtual companionship, assist with house tasks, technology training, and transportation to doctors’ appointments. Scheduling is done via a smartphone app. The company added Papa Health last year, connecting in ‘Papa Docs’ (an unnerving term for those who recall ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier of Haiti) for primary care, chronic care management, and urgent care. Papa works extensively with Medicare Advantage plans such as Humana, Reliance, Florida Blue, and Aetna. Founded in Miami in 2017 with now total funding of over $91 million and available in 50 states, earlier round funders include Comcast Ventures and Canaan Partners. Release, Crunchbase, FierceHealthcare

MediSafe extends med reminder tech, signs major pharma

MediSafe Project, a mobile med reminder app developed in Israel [TTA 4 Jan], is partnering with Wealth Taxi’s (!) iReminder pill caps to create a reminder system which can be used without a smartphone. The MediSafe Virtual Pillbox can use a NFC (near field communication) tag or alternatively, a Bluetooth version for web users, to create a ‘lighter’ reminder for over-the-counter or generic drugs. The more sophisticated iReminder pill caps would be used for higher-end prescription drugs. The MedCityNews article from the mHealth Summit also officially confirms Omri ‘Bob’ Shor’s ongoing discussions with New York-based AdhereTech’s [TTA 27 Aug] high-end pill reminder/dose confirmer. MediSafe is also partnering with Swiss pharmaceutical company Tillotts Pharma in “UC and ME”, a program for ulcerative colitis patients using their drug and HealthiNation on videos for Lipitor and Metformin users. While MediSafe on its own has had 170,000 downloads of its free app and ‘tens of thousands’ active (Ed.–data from Bob Shor), its real potential is in the partnerships–and the data generated by them–which now seem to be well underway.