Latest news with #VillageMD
Business Wire
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Summit Health Announces Internalization of Genomic Testing Cooperative State-of-The-Art Next Generation Sequencing DNA and RNA Profiling Tests for Tissue and Liquid Biopsy of Solid Tumors and Hematologic Neoplasms
LAKE FOREST, Calif. & WOODLAND PARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Summit Health, part of Village MD and Genomic Testing Cooperative (GTC), the global leader in RNA innovation, are excited to announce today the launch of a newly established next generation sequencing service at the Summit Health laboratory in Woodland Park, NJ to offer comprehensive DNA and RNA profiling of solid tumors and hematologic neoplasms. The internalized GTC testing menu includes tissue and bone marrow-based DNA and RNA next generation sequencing of hematologic neoplasms and solid tumors. Summit Health will now offer GTC's peripheral blood and CSF-based liquid biopsy, Liquid Trace. This revolutionary liquid biopsy assay analyzes cell free DNA and RNA (cfDNA and cfRNA) for hematologic neoplasms and solid tumors. This testing provides Summit/Village MD clinicians with a comprehensive precision diagnosis and monitoring tools to deliver state-of-the-art precision care for their patients. By running the tests locally in-house, Summit Health will reduce their send-out burden to multiple labs, standardize collection of data, shorten turn-around time and have the opportunity to participate in R&D, clinical trials and the development of IP. As a member of the GTC Co-Op group, Summit Health will gain access to cutting-edge scientific capabilities, access to a pipeline of innovation in diagnostics, and proprietary technology and datasets for R&D. "We are very thrilled to partner with GTC in internalizing and adopting their comprehensive portfolio of tissue and liquid biopsy tests for hematologic neoplasms and solid tumors. We believe that this testing is currently essential for the practice of precision medicine,' said Dr. Gordana Katava, DO, Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Summit Health/Village MD. Dr. Maher Albitar, Founder, CEO and Chief Medical Officer at GTC, stated, 'We are excited to add Summit and Village MD physicians to our Co-Op network. GTC was established on the promise of democratizing genomic science and next generation sequencing. This partnership is a step forward toward achieving our goal,' Dr. Albitar added. 'The Co-OP model is not only standardizing next generation sequencing, but also providing ecosystem for cooperation, sharing knowledge and AI-based software, and reducing cost of internalizing NGS.' About Summit Health Summit Health, which is a part of VillageMD, helps patients with all their comprehensive primary care and multi-specialty care needs. Whether it's getting annual checkups, raising a family, or prioritizing healthy aging, Summit Health works as a team to deliver care that helps patients make the right choices and stay a step ahead of any issues. Summit Health offers high-quality connected care services covering nearly every medical specialty including orthopedics, urology, dermatology, cardiology, gastroenterology, and more. When patients need urgent care, they can visit Summit Health's urgent care partner, CityMD, which has 180+ locations throughout N.Y. and N.J. Together, Summit Health and CityMD are one connected care team. About GTC Genomic Testing Cooperative [GTC], the global leader in RNA innovation, is a privately owned molecular testing company located in Lake Forest, California. Since its inception in 2018 GTC has been focused on facilitating the acceleration of access to NGS enabled precision medicine in Oncology through innovative science and differentiated business models and practices and has grown through the realization of these strategies to become a leading partner/provider in the Oncology NGS space helping healthcare organizations to tackle the biggest problems in Next Generation Sequencing for Oncology today. Forward Looking Statements All the statements, expectations and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on GTC and Summit Health management's current expectations and include statements regarding the value of Molecular profiling, testing, therapy, and the ability of testing to provide clinically useful information. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Summit Health or GTC undertake no duty to update this information unless required by law.
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
As Walgreens Looks to Save Cash, Suitor Sycamore Seeks Funding
(Bloomberg) -- Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.'s chairman and biggest shareholder, Stefano Pessina, has dealmaking in his DNA. Yet finding a deal to rescue the drugstore empire he built is proving difficult. How the 2025 Catholic Jubilee Is Reshaping Rome Manhattan's Morning Commute Time Drops With New Congestion Toll Trump Paves the Way to Deputize Local Police on Immigration Housing Aid Uncertain After Trump's Spending Freeze Memo Trump's Federal Funding Pause Threatens State Financials When the Italian-born Pessina, 83, merged his Alliance Boots with the US pharmacy giant in 2014, it marked a crowning moment in a decades-long campaign to construct a pharmacy colossus. The rewards ended up being short-lived. The stock hit an all-time high in 2015, but then spent most of the next nine years on a long slide. On Thursday, shareholders suffered another blow when Walgreens said it was suspending its quarterly dividend, which it had paid for 92 years. The company said it needed to conserve cash. The stock fell as much as 17% on Friday. Investors have been hoping that an agreement to take the company private will come together — and give Walgreens space to repair the business. Private equity firm Sycamore Partners has been speaking with private credit firms about debt financing for a potential Walgreens deal, according to people familiar with the matter, despite an earlier report that takeover talks had stalled. There's no certainty that a deal will be reached. Spokespeople for Walgreens and Sycamore declined to comment for this article. For years, Walgreens made moves that seemed to compound the pain it was already facing because of industrywide pressure on prescription reimbursement rates and competition in the front of the store from online retailers like Inc. Most notably, it embarked on an expensive foray into patient care in July 2020 with VillageMD. Walgreens pumped money into the business with the idea of creating one-stop shopping for seeing the doctor and picking up prescriptions, but it has ended up with little to show for it. Sycamore, which is best known for making complexly structured investments in struggling retailers and consumer companies, could seek a pact in which health units like VillageMD are sold. The firm could also refinance Walgreens' debt so it is attached to certain units and not the entire company, some of the people said. There are several factors that could make putting a takeover together challenging, though. Walgreens, with a market value Friday of around $8.8 billion, has about $8 billion in debt and another $22 billion in lease obligations. And it is also on the hook for billions of dollars in settlement payments tied to opioid litigation. 'It is not clear how an LBO or a takeout could really put a bunch of debt on this asset and still make a good return, or still be viable,' said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Jonathan Palmer, referring to a leveraged buyout. Still, Sycamore has found success turning around retailers that were already buckling under their own debt. When Sycamore agreed to buy office-supply retailer Staples in 2017, it split the financing into three pieces. It raised debt for the company's stronger wholesale division and then spun off the US and Canadian retail operations into separate entities. By 2020, Sycamore had already recouped roughly 80% of the equity it had put up as part of the deal. Walgreens has explored going private previously. In 2019, KKR & Co. approached it about a potential deal that would then have been the largest-ever leveraged buyout. The talks, spearheaded by Pessina, then serving as CEO, eventually fell apart. Seeking Fixes Walgreens tapped Tim Wentworth in October of 2023 to help turn the company around. In early 2024, he said the company was 'evaluating all strategic options' as it looked to cut costs and increase cash flow. Wentworth and other executives met with bankers who pitched ideas for improving the company's financial health, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Walgreens has long faced questions about why it didn't pursue the route taken by rival CVS Health Corp., which spent years remaking itself into a health-care conglomerate by acquiring the pharmacy-benefit manager Caremark as well as insurer Aetna. Walgreens draws more than three-quarters of its revenue from its US pharmacy and retail business, which makes missteps in its stores costly. Putting items in display cases to prevent theft, for example, has had a chilling effect in the checkout line. 'When you lock things up,' Wentworth told investors this month, 'you don't sell as many of them. We've kind of proven that pretty conclusively.' Still, some of Walgreens' most pressing challenges lie outside its core business. Under previous CEO Rosalind Brewer in 2021, the company launched a new health-care strategy intended to make it 'a leading provider of local clinical care services,' according to a filing with regulators. Brewer doubled down on Pessina's investment in VillageMD, taking a majority stake and planning to open hundreds more clinics. A year later, Walgreens sunk more money into that project to help facilitate VillageMD's buyout of Summit Health-CityMD, a medical practice and chain of urgent-care centers. VillageMD meanwhile was hemorrhaging more cash than Walgreens had anticipated, and it wasn't clear how much more funding would be needed for it to ultimately become profitable. 'It's clear it just hasn't worked out,' Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, an investor in Walgreens, said of the original VillageMD investment. 'With a fair amount of debt and concerns around their balance sheet, they just can't fund those losses anymore.' The moves left Walgreens with a jumble of businesses that burned cash. Brewer abruptly stepped down after fewer than three years as CEO in 2023. The next year, Walgreens wrote down $5.8 billion of its VillageMD investment. Banker Pitches Early last year, rumors were swirling at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference that private equity firms were evaluating whether to buy out Walgreens. At the same time, the company was evaluating moves around some of its individual businesses. Walgreens hired Centerview Partners to explore a potential sale of Shields Health Solutions, its specialty pharmacy unit. It reversed course several weeks later, people familiar with the matter said. As the year wore on, Wentworth, who had been CEO of Express Scripts when the pharmacy benefits manager sold itself to insurer Cigna Group in 2018, and John Driscoll, a senior adviser who was previously the president of Walgreens's health care division, solicited more turnaround ideas from Wall Street. The executives asked investment bankers from more than half a dozen different firms, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lazard Inc. and Centerview, to pitch potential moves. Some bankers suggested refinancing debt, selling assets, closing stores and finding a private equity firm to take the company private, among other ideas, the people said. Spokespeople for JPMorgan, Goldman, Lazard and Centerview declined to comment. As word got out that Walgreens might be open to a deal, enterprising investment bankers called up their favorite private equity clients and offered to help them finance a buyout, if desired. Several private equity firms lobbed in lowball offers for Walgreens, people familiar with the matter said. None of those conversations got very far, in part because none were seen as attractive enough for Walgreens. Walgreens also gauged interest in a potential equity infusion for VillageMD but found no takers, according to the people. Evaluating Options By the summer, Walgreens had decided to focus on a turnaround. According to people familiar with the discussions, the goal was to minimize the effect of VillageMD on the rest of the business and potentially refinance debt. Walgreens has been considering various strategic options for VillageMD, including a sale or restructuring, according to an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A sale of VillageMD is seen as the best possible outcome, according to people familiar with the matter, who said Walgreens wants to avoid unsettling suppliers. Earlier this month, the clouds over Walgreens looked like they might be starting to part, as it reported better-than-expected quarterly pharmacy sales. That led to the biggest single-day gain in Walgreens shares in decades. But it was only weeks later that management would go on to cut the dividend. --With assistance from Paula Seligson, Jill R. Shah, John Tozzi and Crystal Tse. Indy Pass, the Anti-Vail Seasonal Ski Ticket, Is Gaining Fans The Internet Almost Killed Barnes & Noble, Then Saved It What America's Tech Billionaires Really Bought When They Backed Donald Trump Musk Pitches New Narrative as Tesla Sales Fall Forget Factories, Small US Towns Want Buc-ee's Gas Stations ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
30-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
For first time in 92 years, Walgreens suspends quarterly dividend amid financial struggles
Walgreens Boots Alliance announced Thursday that it is suspending its practice of paying cash dividends to stockholders — the first time it won't pay a quarterly dividend in 92 years. The change comes amid struggles for the Deerfield-based retail pharmacy giant. Walgreens announced plans in October to shutter 1,200 stores over the next three years, including in Chicago. Walgreens has been cutting costs for years, including through layoffs in Illinois and other locations. Walgreens said in a news release Thursday that it was suspending quarterly dividends 'as management continues to evaluate and refine its capital allocation policy consistent with the company's broader long-term turnaround efforts.' Before now, Walgreens Boots Alliance and its predecessor company, Walgreen Co., had paid quarterly dividends to stockholders for 368 consecutive quarters, or 92 years. The change is aimed at improving Walgreens' finances by reducing debt over time and improving cash flow, Walgreens said in the release. 'The company's cash needs over the next several years, including with respect to litigation and debt refinancing, were important considerations as part of the decision to suspend the dividend,' Walgreens said in the release. Walgreens had a net loss of $265 million in the first quarter of this year, compared with a net loss of $67 million during the same quarter the previous year. Under previous CEOs, Walgreens had aimed to become more of a health care destination, including by investing billions of dollars into primary care provider VillageMD with plans to put Village Medical clinics in 1,000 of its stores by 2027. Walgreens, however, has reversed course on that plan, saying in an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was considering selling all or part of its VillageMD business. Current CEO Tim Wentworth has said that Walgreens wants to refocus on being a 'retail-pharmacy-led company.' Walgreens has also struggled for years with issues related to medication reimbursement and changing consumer habits, among other challenges. Though the company had a net loss in its most recent quarter, some of the operating loss was related to the costs of store closures, and sales increased 7.5% in the quarter compared with the same quarter in the previous year. 'While our turnaround will take time, our early progress reinforces our belief in a sustainable, retail pharmacy-led operating model,' Wentworth said in a news release about earnings earlier this month. It's no surprise that Walgreens chose to suspend its dividend as a way to free up cash, pay down debt and focus on fixing its operations, wrote John Boylan, a senior equity analyst for Edward Jones, in a note to investors Thursday. 'We view this as a prudent step to improve its cash flow and financial structure,' Jones wrote in the note. 'Overall, we believe management's turnaround strategy appears sound, but it will take time to unfold and is not without risk in a highly competitive drugstore industry.' Sign in to access your portfolio
