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Digital-first care company Babylon to sell UK business

Digital-first care company Babylon has announced that a previous proposal to combine their services with digital therapeutics company MindMaze will not go ahead.

The news follows a previous announcement towards the end of June in which Babylon shared that they had received the proposal to combine with MindMaze. At the time, Babylon predicted that the collaboration would see the two organisations collectively “positioned to become a leading value-based care platform with cutting edge technological, clinical and operational ability to both provide holistic primary care and effectively diagnose, manage and treat major episodic and chronic diseases.”

Babylon now says that it is “exploring new strategic alternatives in order to find the best possible outcome for its UK business”. This includes pursuing opportunities to sell the business to third parties in the hopes that they can provide financing to continue operations in the UK. However, Babylon notes, it cannot “provide assurance that any of these initiatives will result in Babylon entering into a definitive agreement for or completing a divestiture.”

Babylon notes that it expects to file for bankruptcy should the discussions for additional funding break down.

In addition, Babylon has announced that it is exiting its core US business. The latest announcement highlights plans to transition US members to other providers, and follows last year’s announcement that the company is selling off its Meritage Medical Network independent physicians association business.

At present, the company states that it “remains focused on continuing the day-to-day operations”.

Founded in 2013, Babylon provides technology and clinical services “supporting a global patient network across 15 countries” said to be “highly scalable, digital-first platform combined with high quality, virtual clinical operations to provide integrated, personalised healthcare”.

In October, we shared how Babylon and Bupa UK agreed a deal for Babylon to continue to provide digital services for a further three years, including a symptom checker and 24/7 virtual consultations.