This is the web version of The Capsule, a daily newsletter monitoring advances in health care and biopharma. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
Good afternoon, readers.
As I mentioned last week, we’re back to a weekly for the Capsule. So look for this every Thursday in your inbox.
Livongo and Teladoc announced an $18.5 billion merger on Wednesday, the largest deal ever in the digital health space, per the companies. I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Jennifer Schneider, Livongo’s president, several times—and she shared some details with me earlier this week about what led to the deal.
I’ll have more to say on that later. But I’ll leave readers with a small taste.
Livongo and Teladoc are both digital health companies, and the former is focused on providing real-time services for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes. The deal is structured as a cash and stock merger. But these virtual medical companies have a different set of expertise which Schneider says can enhance each other (to use corporate speak, synergies).
Among these synergies is merging data collection with virtual care delivery. Those kinds of expertise have a logical relationship.
And, as with just about everything in health care right now, the coronavirus pandemic fueled this particular deal, according to Schneider.
“I think the acceleration of the market, the acceptance of the business models driven by incredible user experience for telemedicine in the pandemic, is a driving force,” she says.
“And it’s also driving the acceptance that this is not a blip. This is not a smaller portion of the health care delivery system. And that’s a large component which has really sped up the approach and the desire to get to that end vision, which is shared between Teladoc and Livongo.”
Stay tuned for more, read on for the day’s news, and see you next week.
Sy Mukherjee
sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com
@the_sy_guy
DIGITAL HEALTH
Capsule, Hims & Hers forge an expanded partnership. Speaking of telehealth, the New York-based digital pharmacy company Capsule (which delivers medications to homes) is partnering with Hims & Hers, a digital health operation which started off specializing in men's health but has since expanded its footprint. This means that "Capsule’s digital pharmacy and same day delivery will now be offered to all Hims & Hers primary care and telemedicine customers in New York and the other cities in which Capsule operates," according to a spokesperson.
INDICATIONS
Why you're not getting your COVID testing results in time. I spent the past few weeks, dear readers, trying to figure out the answer a pretty basic question: Why does it take some people mere minutes to get a coronavirus test result and others days, or even weeks? I spoke with experts across the lab testing industries, academic leaders, and Trump administration officials to try to get to the root of the problem. Unfortunately, the main takeaway is that it's a constellation of culprits. (Fortune)
THE BIG PICTURE
Ohio's governor tests positive for coronavirus. Governor Mike DeWine of Ohio has tested positive for the COVID-19, the second U.S. governor to do so, as NPR reports. He's asymptomatic, but this gets to the heart of the problem: You don't have to be sick or dying in order to still be able to carry the pathogen and potentially spread the disease. DeWine is planning to quarantine for the next two weeks in accordance with public health officials' advice. (NPR)
