Healthcare data company Veradigm said on Tuesday it plans to acquire artificial intelligence company ScienceIO for $140 million.
ScienceIO is a generative AI company that has developed a model specifically trained for healthcare. Veradigm interim CEO Dr. Shih-Yin Ho said the company expects to use ScienceIO’s model to further innovate across its product offerings geared toward payers, providers and life science companies.
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“It’s a really, really great way to go forward because we also recognize that the world is actually moving in the direction of not only generative AI, but AI being around us at all times,” Ho said.
The $140 million proposed deal will include $96 million in cash when deal closes and $44 million to be paid over the next four years. Veradigm expects the deal to close in the next few days.
Ho said Veradigm chose ScienceIO because it had the best-in-class healthcare-specific generative AI models.
Separately, Veradigm said in a release on Tuesday it expects to be delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange for missing its Feb. 27 deadline to file overdue financial reports from 2022. In the release, the company did not specify when it would be delisted but Ho said they are committed to re-listing in the future.
“I think you have to look at delisting is just the fact that we’ve missed the deadline. I think that’s the important thing to look at it. It’s not because there’s anything materially weak about our company or anything of that nature,” Ho said. “From a technical perspective, what we did was we missed the deadline on filing for February 27.”
In December 2023, Veradigm’s board of directors asked for and received the resignations of CEO Richard Poulton and Chief Financial Officer Leah Jones after the company failed to file its 2022 annual report and its financials in 2023. Ho, who previously served as a director of Veradigm, and interim CFO Lee Westerfield have taken over until permanent replacements are named for both positions.
Westerfield said during the 2024 J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference that the company's lack of financial reporting in 2023 overshadowed its healthy business. The company declined to say when it planned to submit the missing financial statement, but emphasized the de-listing stemmed from the missed submission.
In February 2023, the company changed its name from Allscripts to Veradigm. The change came after the sale of its hospital electronic health record business in May 2022 for $670 million to focus solely on its payer and life sciences data analytics business.
