Agreement Includes Strategic Investments
from UPMC Enterprises and Merck Global Health Innovation
Fund
Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and
Canada, and UPMC today announced that Infectious Disease Connect
Inc., a UPMC-backed company offering telemedicine-enabled solutions
to hospitals for treatment of infectious diseases, has combined
with Merck’s ILÚM Health Solutions, a provider of technology and
services to support infectious disease management, clinical
decision-support and precision antibiotic therapy.
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“The addition of ILÚM’s platform and capabilities arms
Infectious Disease Connect’s physicians with an important tool to
accelerate informed decision-making for the hospitals and patients
they serve,” said David Zynn, president of Infectious Disease
Connect. “Combining our respective expertise and resources
positions us to enhance the care of patients with infections,
optimize antimicrobial therapy, lower costs and reduce the
potential for drug resistance.”
As part of this agreement, UPMC Enterprises, the innovation and
commercialization arm of UPMC, and Merck Global Health Innovation
Fund each are investing $5 million to support development of
customer offerings and business growth for the newly combined
entity. UPMC will retain a majority stake in the combined
company.
Infectious Disease Connect has established a telemedicine
solution for infectious disease care enabling doctors to access the
expertise of an infectious disease specialist to facilitate timely
diagnosis and treatment of patients under their care. With ILÚM’s
platform, physicians and pharmacists will receive real-time
antimicrobial usage and resistance data from partner hospitals to
help them select appropriate therapy, while managing costs,
toxicity and the potential for further resistance and transmission
of infection. ILÚM uses machine learning to evaluate a patient’s
demographic factors, medication history, past hospitalizations and
other data to generate individualized treatment
recommendations.
ILÚM also has developed a public health surveillance platform in
conjunction with the New York State Department of Health to track
and limit the spread of drug-resistant organisms and other
infectious disease threats, including COVID-19.
“The rising level of resistance to antimicrobials remains a
serious threat to public health, food safety and global security,”
said Paul Edwards, chief executive officer, ILÚM. “This combination
marries the excellence of Infectious Disease Connect’s physicians
and telemedicine platform with the real-time intelligence needed to
effectively manage increasingly complex and life-threatening
infectious diseases, as seen in this current pandemic.”
With its expanded capabilities and efficiencies, the new
Infectious Disease Connect aims to address the nationwide shortage
of infectious disease physicians, the rapidly rising risk of
hospital-acquired infections and inappropriate antimicrobial usage,
which are estimated to cost hospitals more than $40 billion
annually. The company can provide hospitals with infectious disease
expertise and tools to help meet new federal regulations requiring
evidence-based antimicrobial stewardship programs that produce
measurable results.
Infectious Disease Connect, headquartered in Pittsburgh, will
continue to serve ILÚM’s hospital customers and integrate most of
its employees. The expanded company now serves hospitals in nine
states.
About UPMC
A $21 billion health care provider and insurer, Pittsburgh-based
UPMC is inventing new models of patient-centered, cost-effective,
accountable care. The largest nongovernmental employer in
Pennsylvania, UPMC integrates 89,000 employees, 40 hospitals, 700
doctors’ offices and outpatient sites, and a more than 3.7
million-member Insurance Services Division, the largest medical
insurer in western Pennsylvania. In the most recent fiscal year,
UPMC contributed $1.2 billion in benefits to its communities,
including more care to the region’s most vulnerable citizens than
any other health care institution, and paid $587 million in
federal, state and local taxes. Working in close collaboration with
the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences, UPMC
shares its clinical, managerial and technological skills worldwide
through its innovation and commercialization arm, UPMC Enterprises,
and through UPMC International. U.S. News & World Report
consistently ranks UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside on its annual Honor
Roll of America’s Best Hospitals and ranks UPMC Children’s Hospital
of Pittsburgh on its Honor Roll of America’s Best Children’s
Hospitals. For more information, go to UPMC.com.
Merck’s Commitment to Infectious Diseases
For more than 100 years, Merck has contributed to the discovery
and development of novel medicines and vaccines to combat
infectious diseases. In addition to a combined portfolio of
vaccines and antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal medicines,
Merck has multiple programs that span discovery through late-stage
development. To learn more about Merck’s infectious diseases
pipeline, visit www.merck.com.
About Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHIF) is evolving
corporate healthcare venture capital globally by utilizing their
healthcare ecosystem strategy. This investment strategy connects
innovative companies with complementary technologies to develop
integrated healthcare solutions. Merck GHIF has $500M under
management and provides growth capital to emerging healthcare
technology companies worldwide while leveraging the vast
R&D-based, global resources of Merck. With a vision that data
will be the currency in healthcare, GHIF invests broadly in digital
health. GHIF invests in platform companies with proven technologies
or business models where Merck’s expertise and perspectives can
accelerate revenue growth and enhance value creation. Since late
2010, Merck GHIF has made over 50 investments in Digital Health
companies (www.merckghifund.com).
About Merck
For more than 125 years, Merck, known as MSD outside of the
United States and Canada, has been inventing for life, bringing
forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most
challenging diseases in pursuit of our mission to save and improve
lives. We demonstrate our commitment to patients and population
health by increasing access to health care through far-reaching
policies, programs and partnerships. Today, Merck continues to be
at the forefront of research to prevent and treat diseases that
threaten people and animals – including cancer, infectious diseases
such as HIV and Ebola, and emerging animal diseases – as we aspire
to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in
the world. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect
with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc.,
Kenilworth, N.J., USA
This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J.,
USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within
the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are
based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s
management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.
There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline products that
the products will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or
that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying
assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize,
actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the
forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general
industry conditions and competition; general economic factors,
including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations;
the impact of the recent global outbreak of novel coronavirus
disease (COVID-19); the impact of pharmaceutical industry
regulation and health care legislation in the United States and
internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment;
technological advances, new products and patents attained by
competitors; challenges inherent in new product development,
including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to
accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing
difficulties or delays; financial instability of international
economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of
the company’s patents and other protections for innovative
products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent
litigation, and/or regulatory actions.
The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information,
future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause
results to differ materially from those described in the
forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s 2019
Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company’s other filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s
Internet site (www.sec.gov).
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UPMC Contact: Courtney Caprara Office: 412-647-6190
Mobile: 412-592-8134 E-mail: CapraraCL@upmc.edu
UPMC Contact: Wendy Zellner Office: 412-586-9777 Mobile:
412-973-7266 Email: ZellnerWL@upmc.edu
Merck Media Contact: Pamela Eisele 267-305-3558
Merck Investor Relations Contact: Peter Dannenbaum
908-740-1037
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