Tag: solid

Categories
Health

Our enterprise is ‘rock strong’ and solely getting higher

Our business is 'rock solid' and only getting better

GoodRx co-CEO Doug Hirsch on Friday expressed confidence in the company’s outlook, telling CNBC that the recent acquisitions will help expand the business offering as it approaches a post-pandemic healthcare landscape.

A day earlier, GoodRx reported a 20% increase in revenue for the first quarter, up from $ 133.4 million a year ago to $ 160.4 million. Net income was $ 1.7 million, a sharp decrease from $ 27.3 million in the first quarter of 2020. However, the company that offers customers coupons for prescription drugs said the most recent number was due to stock-based Compensation expense of $ 46.5 million was impacted.

GoodRx’s shares rose roughly 10% on Friday.

“We are switching from the Covid crisis to the other health crisis in which people simply cannot afford their care,” said Hirsch in an interview on “The Exchange”. “We feel that our business is absolutely solid and is getting better and better.”

Two recent deals improve GoodRx’s position, Hirsch said. The first is RxSaver, which also offers prescription coupons to users. Hirsch said the acquisition – allegedly for $ 50 million – brings “a complementary business to ours”. It also offers marketing benefits, he said.

The other acquisition was HealthiNation, which produces information videos on health topics. The content is created by doctors and health professionals, Hirsch said. While GoodRx has had educational content for years, Hirsch said it mainly focuses on the written word.

“A lot of consumers enjoy watching videos,” he said, adding that it also allows GoodRx to sell advertisements to manufacturers for revenue. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

GoodRx’s previous acquisitions included telemedicine provider HeyDoctor in 2019. The company renamed it GoodRx Care in March.

Despite the positive performance on Friday, GoodRx stock has struggled to gain ground since going public in September. The IPO was $ 33 per share and the first session ended at $ 50.50 apiece.

The stock was trading at around $ 31 on Friday, bringing GoodRx’s market cap to just over $ 12 billion.

Competition from much larger competitors – Amazon in particular – is a big problem for some on Wall Street. For example, GoodRx shares fell 22.5% in one session in November after the e-commerce giant revealed plans for Amazon Pharmacy that marked the most significant move in the space.

Hirsch downplayed the threat Amazon poses to GoodRx, which he co-founded in 2011. “People see it as head to head with us, but it’s not like that,” he told CNBC in November.

Of the nine analyst prospects available on FactSet, only one has a sell rating on GoodRx stock while four have a buy rating. The other analysts rate the share as a hold.

Hirsch doubled its bullish outlook on Friday, saying, “Put the markets aside because our business is both durable and highly predictable.”

“Most of the people who use GoodRx have chronic conditions so they take prescriptions all the time. They show up at this pharmacy every month. We have a very reliable source of income, and again we open up new sources of income and new ways of communicating with us the consumers, “he said.

Categories
Health

From the Wastewater Drain, Strong Pandemic Knowledge

From the Wastewater Drain, Solid Pandemic Data

Although Covid-19 is primarily a respiratory disease, research early in the pandemic found that people infected with the coronavirus frequently toss it in their stools. This finding, coupled with the magnitude and urgency of the crisis, immediately sparked interest in tracking the virus by sampling wastewater.

By finding and then counting specific coronavirus genes in wastewater, the researchers hoped to determine if the virus was present in a particular region and how widespread it was. It wasn’t long before sewage monitoring projects started popping up all over Kansas City, Missouri, until Kathmandu, Nepal.

The resulting data, which now appears in a flurry of academic papers and preprints, has provided strong evidence of the principle. Scientists have detected the virus in all sorts of environments: in treated and untreated water, in sludge and settled solids, in sewers and septic tanks, in pit latrines and open drainage systems. They found it in water that ran into huge wastewater treatment plants and out of schools, dormitories, and nursing homes. “It’s just amazing how robust this tool has become,” said Peter Grevatt, executive director of the Water Research Foundation.

Teams around the world – in the US, France, Portugal, India, Iran, Brazil, Canada and elsewhere – also found that the sewage data appeared to be an accurate indicator of what was happening in the real world. As the number of diagnosed Covid-19 cases increased in an area, more coronavirus appeared in wastewater. Virus levels fell when areas were closed and increased when they were reopened.

Several teams have also confirmed that wastewater can serve as an early warning system. Virus concentrations in wastewater often peaked days before doctors saw a peak in official Covid-19 cases.

This lead time, which can range from a few days to two weeks, depends in part on the robustness of local clinical testing programs. Scientists say, if more people are tested for the virus more often, the sewage data will offer less warning. The lead time is also because infected people often start shedding the SARS-CoV-2 virus before they experience symptoms and then often delay seeking medical care once they get sick.

“I think wastewater has proven to be one of the most objective means of understanding what SARS-CoV-2 is doing in our society,” said Gertjan Medema, a microbiologist at the KWR Water Research Institute in the Netherlands.

Categories
World News

Basis of China’s financial restoration ‘not but strong,’ leaders say

Foundation of China's economic recovery 'not yet solid,' leaders say

Workers make protective masks at a factory in Handan, Hebei Province, China on Jan. 22, 2020.

China Daily about REUTERS

BEIJING – Chinese leaders warned at a key economic planning meeting last week that growth was still facing many challenges.

While the rest of the world is still grappling with the shock of the coronavirus pandemic, China will be the only major economy expanding this year.

President Xi Jinping, Prime Minister Li Keqiang, and other heads of state and government who attended the Central Economic Work Conference from December 16-18, commented positively on China’s relative achievements and remained cautious of major changes in economic policy, according to state media. The annual meeting sets development priorities for the coming year.

The meeting indicated that while the country recognizes achievements, it needs to be clearly aware of the changes caused by the pandemic and uncertainties abroad, state media said.

“The foundation of our economic recovery is not yet solid,” the report said in a CNBC translation of the Chinese text.

Covid-19 first appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year. To control the outbreak, Chinese authorities temporarily closed more than half of the country earlier this year. GDP declined 6.8% in the first quarter before returning to growth at 3.2% in the second quarter.

“Not having a solid (foundation) yet indicates a slightly slower than expected start to domestic demand and consumption,” Bruce Pang, director of macro and strategy research at China Renaissance, said in a Chinese statement, according to a CNBC translation.

Investment in manufacturing and the non-government stake have not rebounded much, Pang said. He added there were doubts about the sustainability of exports, uncertainties about employment and many other concerns.

Economists have suggested that much of China’s recovery can be attributed to traditional growth drivers such as exports, fueled by overseas demand for pandemic-related products.

However, many Chinese have yet to increase their spending as they have concerns about future income. This lack of consumption affects an economy that Beijing seeks to support with domestic demand rather than foreign demand.

While China expects growth of around 2% this year, retail sales were down 4.8% year over year by the end of November.

“Next year the pace of economic growth could slow down from an initial rapid pace,” the state media said, according to a CNBC translation of the Chinese text. “Keeping the economy within reasonable limits remains an important test.”

GDP expansion in the first few months of next year would look high compared to the decline in the first quarter of 2020. Overall, many economists predict that China’s GDP will grow by around 8% next year.

Pang pointed out that the rate would represent a 5% growth in 2020 and a further 5% increase in 2021.

That’s slower than the 6.1% pace in 2019.