News roundup, lockdown edition: Oscar Health’s $140M raise, IPO filing; Centene’s Diameter Health investment; Abbott’s telehealth-guided COVID antigen test

December 23, 2020 | by

Before we break for the Christmas and New Year’s festive season, though most of us are partially or fully locked down for travel and get-togethers, binge-watching the telly for comfort, a few items of interest–we’ll keep it short:

An Oscar Health Double Header. Not only did this relatively new payer in the individual, small group, and Medicare Advantage markets gain a $140 million funding round last week, adding to a $225 million raise in June (Fierce Healthcare), but they quietly filed their S-1 registration with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to go public on Monday (Healthcare Dive, Oscar release). Since their founding in 2012, the company has raised $1.6 bn in 10 rounds. The fresh funding will go towards 19 new markets and four new states in 2021, adding to their current 18 states and 211 counties. 

Speaking of payers getting into other lines of business, Centene Corporation, which has Medicare plans with different brands in all 50 states, seems to be moving in a different direction with some recent acquisitions and investments. Centene was the lead investor in an $18 million Series B round for Diameter Health, an enterprise data interoperability developer. Optum Ventures, LRVHealth, Connecticut Innovations, and Activate Venture Partners also participated. Fierce Healthcare Centene recently finalized their acquisition of Apixio (AI-assisted clinical data mining of unstructured data) [TTA 14 Nov] and is acquiring Pantherx, a specialty pharmacy focused on orphan medications and rare diseases, to blend into their Envolve Pharmacy Solutions unit. It does appear that Centene is moving into the UnitedHealthcare/Optum model of dividing services and innovations which can be sold to third parties (Optum) from their health plan and pharmacy businesses (UHC), which may be less profitable in the next few years.

An antigen test for COVID-19 with a telehealth spin is Abbott Pharmaceuticals’ BinaxNOW 15-minute antigen test. It is the first at home, telehealth guided test to get an FDA emergency use authorization (EUA). The Ag Card Home Test requires a prescription and used telehealth to guide users through the sample self-collection process, then to help them read and understand their results. MedTech Dive  It was followed up this week by Quidel’s EUA for a dipstick-style collection with a reading in minutes, similar to that of a pregnancy test, but is only cleared for healthcare settings for now. MedTech Dive

Above: Rockefeller Center, 2011. This year’s tree was mangy and the decorations leading to the plaza scarce.

Is a COVID-19 ‘immunity passport’ next for the UK to get back to work?

May 9, 2020 | by

The Guardian is reporting that UK ministers are in talks with Onfido, a UK company which uses facial biometrics for identity verification. An ‘immunity passport’ would combine identity verification with a medical history on whether that person has had COVID-19. The government could use antigen tests, which show current infections, or a test that detects IgM antibodies. For past infections, the test would need to detect IgG antibodies. This passport would be several months in the future.

The question is if the tests work especially for past infections and access to reliable testing. For instance, the earliest instances of COVID-19 may have occurred in the US starting in late November. Will the IgG antibody still be present? These tests are still developing and are not widespread yet, despite many companies’ claims. Both Roche in the US and Quotient in Edinburgh have new lab-based tests that apparently have superior accuracy. Roche received emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their test, while Quotient is claiming 99.8 accuracy for 36,000 antibody tests a day in 35 minutes.

The process that Onfido outlined works like this:

  1. Use an app to take a facial picture that you match to your government-issued id. The app matches the two to verify your identity and can also detect if the ID is fake.
  2. Get a test to determine whether you have had the coronavirus
  3. At work, you open the app at reception and take a picture of your face that generates a QR code. This is scanned by the receptionist and confirms whether you have immunity or not.
  4. If you have a match, you can enter the workplace.

Of course this discriminates against those with smartphones, and if your facial appearance has changed. Example: if your government ID was taken with a beard and you’re now clean-shaven, in this Editor’s estimation you will have a problem. Most government IDs also look like the pictures of missing appearing on milk cartons, so what your app takes could very well not match.

It’s also unknown whether the antibodies even confer immunity–and for how long.