Home healthcare company Portea Medical announced that it has acquired specialty pharmaceutical distributor MedybizPharma in a move that will enable Portea to strengthen patient engagement and provide better care for chronic disease patients in India. The acquisition was made for an undisclosed consideration of cash and stock.

Announcing the acquisition Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO, Portea Medical, said, “A structured and integrated approach enveloping awareness, monitoring and ongoing disease management is vital to tackle the battle India faces with chronic disease. While hospital-based treatments are important, continuing care delivered to patients at home is a key prong of effective treatment. Portea is already present across several chronic disease areas and with the acquisition of Medybiz, we are adding a vital and powerful, specialised pharma arm to deliver better pharmacy care to patients with chronic conditions who have ongoing needs for medication.”

Bengaluru headquartered MedybizPharma, which started in 2009, is India’s leading Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM). Over the last six years it has served more than two lakh patients providing prescription refill and therapy compliance support for super-speciality medicines. The company has 200 employees, a footprint across 26 cities in 19 states in India and was acquired from the Reliance ADA Group by its Management Team in 2011.

Kewal Handa, a 30-year pharmaceutical industry veteran and former MD of Pfizer India who is the Chairman of MedybizPharma said: “While diseases may respond to medicine, people respond to care, and chronic diseases in particular require specialised care over many years. We have always been committed to the best outcomes for patients and are therefore delighted with our alignment with Portea which will exponentially increase the impact we have on patients.”

Portea Medical handles 60,000+ home visits a month across 24 cities in India and in September 2015 received Series B funding of $37.5 million from Accel, IFC, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast. Medybiz’s services include Speciality Pharma Support (Patient Assistance Programs ‘PAP’) for pharmaceutical companies and Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) services as part of employee benefits programs. The company’s offerings run the entire gamut covering Diabetes, Cardiology, Oncology, Osteoarthritis, Osteoporosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Tuberculosis and Neurology, amongst others.

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