Portea Medical acquires Medybiz Pharma to accelerate penetration in chronic disease market

Leading home healthcare company, Portea Medical has acquired specialty pharmaceutical distributor MedybizPharma to strengthen patient engagement and better care for chronic disease patients in India.

Portea Medical, which handles 60,000+ home visits a month across 24 cities in India and bagged Series B funding of $37.5 million from Accel, IFC, Qualcomm Ventures and Ventureast, has acquired MedybizPharma for an undisclosed consideration of cash and stock.

Announcing the deal, Meena Ganesh, MD & CEO, Portea Medical explained, “Portea is already present across several chronic disease areas and with the acquisition of Medybiz, we are adding a vital and powerful, specialized Pharma arm to deliver better pharmacy care to patients with chronic conditions who have ongoing needs for medication.” 

The Bengaluru-based is India’s leading Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM). Started in 2009, former MD of Pfizer India, Kewal Handa is the Chairman of Medybiz. Over the last six years, Medybiz has served over two lakh patients, providing prescription refill and therapy compliance support for super-speciality medicines.

“While diseases may respond to medicine, people respond to care, and chronic diseases in particular require specialized 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,” noted Handa.

Medybiz has 200 employees and a footprint across 26 cities in 19 states in India services include Speciality Pharma Support (Patient Assistance Programs ‘PAP’) for pharmaceutical companies and Pharmacy Benefits Management (PBM) services as part of employee benefits programs.

Its offerings run the entire gamut covering Diabetes, Cardiology, Oncology, Osteoarthritis, Osteoporosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Tuberculosis and Neurology, amongst others.