AWARD WINNING EDITORIAL
INCLUDING THE HUDSON VALLEY JANUARY 31, 2022 VOL. 58, No. 5
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Sema4 acquires GeneDx in pivot back to core mission BY JUSTIN MCGOWN jmcgown@westfairinc.coma
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Anthony Viceroy, left, and Jeff Alter.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR WESTMED AND SUMMIT? BY PETER KATZ Pkatz@westfairinc.com
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hen the acquisition of Purchase-based health care provider Westmed by Summit Health based in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, became effective just before Christmas, the two multispecialty medical practices formally started joining their businesses in a process that is expected to take several months to complete. In addition to dealing with the complexities that accompany any business merger, company leadership had to make sure that serving patient needs remains the prime objective. “Over the years Westmed has enjoyed a wonderful reputation
delivering the best health care with the best outcomes for the patients,” Jeff Alter, CEO of physician-owned Summit Health told the Business Journal. “We saw Westmed as a very like-minded group that if together we would really strengthen the ability to deliver connected care to even more of the New York-New Jersey population. From the Summit Health side, having the ability to add Westmed to the family was incredibly important. We saw a culture that was very much like ours. We saw a commitment to the patient that was very much like ours, and we saw a physician-led organization that was exactly like ours.” Anthony Viceroy, CEO of Westmed who has been appointed president and COO of Summit
Health, told the Business Journal that during the process of discussing the merger possibilities it became obvious that there was a shared vision. “Because we had shared values and shared beliefs in how we saw health care and where health care was headed, it became very obvious to us that Summit Health was going to be the right strategic fit long term,” Viceroy said.
“The more time that we spent with the management team and the layer below and really understanding how the organizations would come together it became very simple for us to say this is going to be the right fit.” Viceroy went a step beyond just announcing the deal to Westmed's patients: he drafted a detailed letter that was » WESTMED AND SUMMIT
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tamford-based Sema4 gained new prominence throughout 2021 by providing rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for Covid19. While the testing was a necessary service for an extraordinary health crisis, Sema4 considered its mission to be an AI-driven genomic and clinical data intelligence platform company, with an eye toward improving medicine atlarge. In pursuit of this mission, on Jan. 18 Sema4 and Miami-based OPKO Health Inc., a multinational biopharmaceutical and diagnostics company, signed a definitive agreement for Sema4 to acquire OPKO’s wholly owned subsidiary, GeneDx Inc., a leader in genomic testing and analysis, for an undisclosed sum. According to Sema4 CFO Isaac Ro, planning for this acquisition began six months ago. “Covid testing is a business that we have been in since the early days of the pandemic, but we disclosed and decided to exit that business in the early part of this year,” Ro said. “The reasons why are several, but in general it is not strategic to SEma4’s core mission.” Ro said that Sema4 was initially asked by multiple parties to help in the testing effort and did so because of the obvious need the public had. But now that other companies are in a position to meet the public’s need for » SEMA4
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