Think Research chief executive officer Sachin Aggarwal.Angelyn Francis/Handout
Health-tech scale-up Think Research Corp. is buying fellow Toronto company MDBriefCase Group Inc. for $25.3-million in shares and cash, adding to its suite of tools that keep medical professionals up to date with evidence-based research.
Think Research’s software helps health professionals figure out the best way to care for patients by using algorithms to compare details about their condition with the latest clinical research. MDBriefCase helps professionals brush up on the latest evidence-based research, too, developing continuing education and professional development courses for the health sector.
The companies announced the acquisition Monday evening. The transaction consists of $24-million in Think Research shares and $1.3-million in cash; the company will also take on $3.2-million in debt from MDBriefCase. The deal is expected to close by the end of March. Think Research also said Monday that former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins would join its board.
Think Research chief executive officer Sachin Aggarwal said in an interview he hopes the deal will help his company play a bigger role in making sure physicians and other professionals make decisions with the best-available information.
“Organizations and research institutions produce new evidence, pharmaceutical companies and med-tech companies produce new products, and then there’s a whole journey in taking that evidence to market,” Mr. Aggarwal said. By combining MDBriefCase’s continuing education and Think Research’s software used at the point of care, he said he hopes “we can own the driving of evidence into patient care, from end to end.”
The two companies had partnered before to distribute their products. Think Research works with more than 2,800 health care facilities across North America. Mr. Aggarwal said by bringing their teams together, they hope to combine sales expertise and expand to health care organizations and markets where one or the other has a stronger foothold – such as Australia, where he said MDBriefCase has already made strides.
“This is a game of scale,” Mr. Aggarwal said. “We’re much more significant together.”
As the pandemic drew greater attention to the health-tech sector in recent months, Think Research has made a series of calculated moves to boost its growth. As it listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange’s Venture Exchange in late December, it also spent $14.6-million to buy Toronto-based HealthCarePlus’s group of clinics, giving it a network of physical clinics of its own. It also said in early January it would buy Toronto-based cosmetic and elective surgery services company Clinic 360 Inc.
Think Research shares closed at $4.15 on Monday, valuing the company at $149-million.
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Josh O’Kane