MedStar Health, Inc.

STAAD, Switzerland--( BUSINESS WIRE )--Biosynth, a global supplier of critical raw materials and services to the life sciences industry, today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Matt Gunnison as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors, effective immediately. The Board has also appointed Kieran Murphy as Chairman, effective as of the same date. Matt Gunnison will succeed Urs Spitz, under whose guidance Biosynth has achieved remarkable growth and strengthened its position in the life sciences sector. Urs Spitz will remain a member of the Board of Directors. “ We are grateful to Urs for his significant contributions in shaping Biosynth into the innovative and thriving company it is today. We are now excited to welcome Matt as CEO, whose vision and extensive experience will be pivotal in leading the company through its next chapter,” said Kugan Sathiyanandarajah, Partner at KKR and Head of Europe for KKR’s Health Care Strategic Growth strategy. “ I am thrilled to join Biosynth at such an exciting time in its journey. The company has built a strong foundation under Urs’s leadership, and I look forward to working with the talented team to further accelerate our growth and innovation. Together, we will continue to deliver critical raw materials and services that drive advancements in the life sciences and make a real impact on global health outcomes,” said Matt Gunnison. “ It’s a privilege to be appointed Chairman of Biosynth. I am excited to work alongside Matt and the entire team as we chart the course for the company’s continued growth. Biosynth is at the forefront of innovation in the life sciences industry, and I am confident we have the right leadership and vision to drive our success forward,” said Kieran Murphy. “ I’m immensely proud of what Biosynth has accomplished. I would like to congratulate Matt and Kieran on their new roles and wish them, along with the whole Biosynth team, great success in the years ahead. I look forward to continuing to support them in my role on the Board as they lead Biosynth into this new chapter,” said Urs Spitz. Matt currently serves as CEO of Gamma Biosciences, a life sciences investment platform that he co-founded with leading global investment firm KKR. He brings nearly two decades of experience in the healthcare and life sciences industries. At Gamma, Matt oversaw the acquisition and management of a portfolio of growth stage businesses serving the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Prior to Gamma, he served in various positions at GE Healthcare, most recently as head of corporate development for the $19B division of General Electric Co. Matt holds a B.A. in Economics from Georgetown University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. Kieran currently serves as a senior advisor to KKR and will transition to Biosynth from Gamma Biosciences, where he has served as Chairman since 2022. He brings decades of corporate leadership and board experience in healthcare and life sciences, including as former President and CEO of GE Healthcare and GE Healthcare Life Sciences. Joining Matt and Kieran, as Head of Corporate Development for Biosynth, is Eric Simpson, previously Vice President at Gamma Biosciences. About Biosynth Biosynth is a supplier of critical materials, securing life science supply chains with global research, manufacturing, and distribution facilities. Supplying the pharmaceutical and diagnostic sectors; where Chemistry meets Biology, Products meet Services and Innovation meets Quality, Biosynth is at the Edge of Innovation. With an unrivaled research product portfolio of over a million products and end-to-end manufacturing services, Biosynth’s expertise and capability runs across Complex Chemicals, Peptides, and Key Biologics, all from one trusted partner. Headquartered in Staad, Switzerland, Biosynth is owned amongst others by KKR, Ampersand Capital Partners and management. Find out more about Biosynth at www.biosynth.com . About KKR KKR is a leading global investment firm that offers alternative asset management as well as capital markets and insurance solutions. KKR aims to generate attractive investment returns by following a patient and disciplined investment approach, employing world-class people, and supporting growth in its portfolio companies and communities. KKR sponsors investment funds that invest in private equity, credit and real assets and has strategic partners that manage hedge funds. KKR’s insurance subsidiaries offer retirement, life and reinsurance products under the management of Global Atlantic Financial Group. References to KKR’s investments may include the activities of its sponsored funds and insurance subsidiaries. For additional information about KKR & Co. Inc. (NYSE: KKR), please visit KKR’s website at www.kkr.com . For additional information about Global Atlantic Financial Group, please visit Global Atlantic Financial Group’s website at www.globalatlantic.com . About Ampersand Ampersand Capital Partners, founded in 1988, is a middle-market private equity firm with $3 billion of assets under management, dedicated to growth-oriented investments in the healthcare sector. With offices in Boston, MA, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, Ampersand leverages a unique blend of private equity and operating experience to build value and drive long-term performance alongside its portfolio company management teams. Ampersand has helped build numerous market-leading companies across each of the firm's core healthcare sectors. For additional information, visit Ampersandcapital.com or follow Ampersand on LinkedIn .

MedStar Health announced Monday that its acute care at home is now available to Baltimore patients of its Franklin Square Medical Center, Good Samaritan, Harbor and Union Memorial hospitals. WHY IT MATTERS Through the collaboration, Dispatch Health offers pre-scheduled home visits daily, including weekends and holidays, following discharge from emergency departments and inpatient hospital units – typically within 72 hours – MedStar said. The service gives patients of MedStar's Baltimore facilities a "seamless, monitored transition" home, according to Dr. Ethan Booker, MedStar's chief medical officer for telehealth. Dispatch has already provided more than 700 at-home patient visits in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Booker said in the announcement Monday. The extended collaboration brings Dispatch's in-home care to Baltimore for the first time, added Dr. Phil Mitchell, the company's chief medical officer. The company also offers same-day or next-day care upon referral from a telehealth visit, according to MedStar. Acute care conditions treated range from cardiology and respiratory to dermatology, musculoskeletal, neurological and more. At-home high-acuity care through the service could include medical treatments, like administration of IV fluids and medications and certain diagnostic and lab services. THE LARGER TREND Like a lot of health systems, MedStar rapidly launched new telemedicine technology in response to COVID-19, which resulted in 100,000 video visits in the first two months of use . Two years ago, researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions, funded in part by the American Telemedicine Association, found that patients with acute conditions who had initial telehealth encounters appeared to require additional follow-up visits. The researchers found that patients with acute clinical conditions who first sought care via telehealth had higher odds of having a follow-up encounter, an emergency department encounter and in-patient admission than those who sought care in person. In the post-pandemic era, the medical community has come to realize that the transition home is a critical part of the care continuum , and is looking to hospital-at-home programs and remote patient monitoring technologies to make transitions successful and improve access and equity for eligible patients. "Resources from specialties like cardiology and endocrinology to services like case management and social services are often siloed, making coordination even more difficult," Cindy Gaines, RN, chief clinical transformation officer at Lumeon, a clinical automation company, told Healthcare IT News . "Expanding the care continuum to integrate care at home will improve patient care outcomes, clinician satisfaction and financial performance," she said. ON THE RECORD "Patients are comforted to know that someone will come to their home when they don’t medically need to remain in the hospital, but may still need care to bridge the gap between discharge and their next physician visit," Booker said in a statement. "Together, we’ll help streamline care between the hospital and home for the patient, enhance their experience of care, improve health outcomes and reduce costs every step of the way," Mitchell added. Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News. Email: afox@himss.org Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.

The biopharma industry has been a bipartisan political target in recent years. But in the 2024 presidential election, details are scarce around key issues that could impact drugmakers. Drug pricing has been a focal point for the Biden White House, and the next administration will either continue with negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act or seek to go their own direction. Vice President Kamala Harris has said she wants to “accelerate” Medicare negotiations. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has recently embraced Robert F. Kennedy Jr., saying at a Madison Square Garden campaign event that he will let Kennedy “go wild on health.” But the candidates’ stances on other issues pivotal to the pharmaceutical industry — such as march-in rights or FTC scrutiny — remain less clear. Like many Americans , Zachary Baron, director of Georgetown University’s Center for Health Policy and the Law, has been waiting for a “big policy discussion” on some of these issues. A week before the election, he told Endpoints News that “it’s just not something that has really come up.” “I would imagine that the pharma industry is probably struggling right now to understand the range of circumstances,” Baron said. Here’s what the biopharma industry is paying attention to as Americans head to the polls: The Inflation Reduction Act: Harris has championed the IRA, which allowed Medicare to negotiate certain drug prices for the first time. If elected, she has said she’ll “cover more drugs and lower prices for Americans.” But Baron said that IRA reform could be challenging, especially if there’s a split government after the election. However, the same applies to Trump, he added. While he would likely face pressure from the pharmaceutical industry to “slow-walk negotiated prices or kick up sand in other ways,” Baron said that “it seems to be a politically dicey move to do in your first year.” As Chris Meekins, a Raymond James research analyst and former HHS official, put it: “He’s not going to want to make it look like he is weak on the pharmaceutical industry and pharmaceutical executives.” Trump took a similar approach to lowering drug prices in 2020, with a model that would have tied Medicare Part B prices to those paid by other countries. That effort was eventually pulled by the CMS under the Biden administration. ATI Advisory’s Anna Kaltenboeck, who co-authored the IRA’s drug-negotiation section, said she is confident the first round of negotiated prices will take effect in 2026, barring a successful legal challenge. “There’s a pretty solid throughline in the language that really directs what CMS has to do,” she said, noting that the law is “relatively clear” on how the prices should be implemented. FTC scrutiny: It’s uncertain whether Lina Khan will remain the head of the FTC, though William Blair analyst Matt Phipps said the agency’s recent challenges to deals are “at least giving people pause” when it comes to biotech M&A. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, said earlier this year that Khan is “doing a pretty good job” during a Bloomberg event . Meanwhile, Harris has faced pressure to replace Khan if elected. March-in rights and drug pricing: Under the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, the government can — in limited circumstances — “march in” and issue new licenses for certain patents based on federally funded research. And, in February, the Biden administration rolled out draft guidance for the use of so-called march-in rights on high-priced drugs, prompting criticism from the pharmaceutical industry and bipartisan lawmakers . Phipps said he has low expectations for that actually happening, but noted it “is something that, clearly, Kamala has talked about.” Harris released a plan during her 2019 campaign suggesting the Bayh-Dole Act could be used to help lower drug costs, according to reports. “If Harris wins, we could see them move in that direction. And so that’s something you wouldn’t likely see if Trump wins,” Meekins said. “Now, will it survive a court challenge? Probably not.” China: Lawyers recently predicted that Congress is likely to pass the Biosecure Act between the election and the inauguration in January. The legislation would essentially prohibit China-based biotech contractors from working with US companies. One of those lawyers, John Strom, told Endpoints News last week that both administrations would likely implement the law “in a similar fashion.” “What you may see with the Trump administration is a willingness to move more quickly on implementation and to have that be coupled with a lot of the trade issues that they’ve focused in on,” he said. Pharmacy benefit managers: PBMs are a bipartisan topic of interest for lawmakers, and industry experts say that will likely remain the case after the election. Some lawmakers have called for more transparency around the so-called “middlemen” between drug manufacturers and insurers. “I don’t think that’s going to stop being a bipartisan issue,” Kaltenboeck said. “Things like that, where there is a bit of shared ground, I would expect that to be areas of opportunity in the next Congress.” Markets: In early October, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman predicted that a Trump victory would likely be “overall more positive for the biopharma sentiment.” He said it’s likely then that the IRA would not be expanded, “FTC intervention will shift away from pharma,” corporate taxes would be lower, and the focus on drug pricing reform could shift to PBMs. However, he added that because of the likelihood of a divided Congress, “we anticipate that there will be minimal impactful legislation affecting biopharma regardless of the president elected.” As for the XBI — the biotech industry’s closely-watched main stock index — it could “perform well” initially if Trump is elected, but “post-initial reaction, the XBI would flatten out,” according to Jefferies’ Desh Peramunetilleke.