Electronic health records vendor Allscripts Healthcare Solutions has bought a 10 percent equity stake in NantHealth, the health IT arm of Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s empire, for $200 million, while another Soon-Shiong company has bought $100 million worth of stock in Allscripts.
The deal, announced Tuesday, extends a partnership first disclosed in March, in which the two companies agreed to share technology in developing more personalized cancer treatments.
Chicago-based Allscripts paid cash for its 10 percent stake in NantHealth, the two companies said. Soon-Shiong bought into Allscripts via his personal investment vehicle, NantCapital, part of his burgeoning NantWorks conglomeration.
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The Los Angeles Times reported that the cross-investment, which values Culver City, Calif.-based NantHealth at $2 billion, closer to a planned initial public offering later this year. “We feel we have one or two transactions to accomplish, then we will initiate the public offering that we anticipate will happen probably within this year,” Soon-Shiong reportedly told the Times.
NantHealth and Allscripts said that they would jointly integrate their software via application provider interfaces, including placing dashboards to NantHealth databases and analytics engines into Allscripts EHRs. For example, NantHealth will make its Eviti cancer-specific clinical decision support technology available through Allscripts front ends, NantHealth President Robert Watson said in an interview with MedCity News.
The two companies also plan on developing several specific pieces of technology: an ontology and industry standard for cross-clinical usage of a NantHealth-developed test known as GPS Cancer (GPS stands for genomic-proteomic sequencing); invitations for GPS Cancer sequencing delivered to specific patients through Allscripts’ FollowMyHealth portal; and a new product for accountable care organizations that promotes semantic interoperability.
“We believe that our GPS Cancer test should become a standard of care,” Watson said. It takes the kind of access to hospitals and cancer centers that Allscripts has to make it happen, Watson explained.
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The test is more comprehensive than others on the market, Watson said, in that it takes into account the full genome and full exome, not just a small subset of pairs.
In a press release, Allscripts President and CEO Paul Black said:
“We’re taking an important step forward in our strategic partnership that fully aligns our resources and furthers Allscripts’ strategy to invest in new technologies that can revolutionize service to hospitals and physicians. Under the leadership of Dr. Soon-Shiong, NantHealth is pioneering extraordinarily innovative, personalized healthcare solutions that will empower more efficient and effective clinical decisions. We’re confident that our joint efforts will help Allscripts lead the way in our vision of delivering open, integrated and precision-based medical solutions to physicians and patients.”
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