A start-up specialising in digital healthtech has announced a major strategic collaboration with its Malaysian counterpart, which will help propel the promising British SME to the next level.
London, UK – 9 October 2019 – A start-up specialising in digital healthtech has announced a major strategic collaboration with its Malaysian counterpart, which will help propel the promising British SME to the next level.
British company SmartMed Global, part of the SmartIdeas Group, has signed a joint venture agreement with high growth Malaysian technology company N2W Corporation Sdn. Bhd (N2W), the 100% subsidiary of the state government agency, Johor Corporation (JCorp).
The deal is particularly significant due to the wider opportunities it presents for SmartMed to grow its presence in the digital health sector in Asia. JCorp also owns KPJ Healthcare Berhad (KPJ), Malaysia’s leading private healthcare services provider, which operates a network of 32 specialist hospitals in Malaysia, with a further presence in Australia, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
A formal Document Exchange and Inauguration Event took place at an event scape in Cyberjaya, Malaysia’s start-up equivalent of the Silicon Valley area, which is in close distance of the new collaboration company NewWave Health Sdn Bhd, on 11 September 2019.
Under the terms of the joint venture, the collaborators will invest significant sums over the next three years to develop LifeMed, a remote health diagnostics and monitoring solutions as a tool to enable patients to better manage their medical conditions and clinicians to better monitor them and, if necessary, make timely interventions. The initiative aims to add value to all healthcare providers, with the ability for clinicians to monitor their patients round-the-clock.
SmartMed was created in 2011 to provide digital technology solutions that better support patient care in the community. The London based company’s range of digital mobile solutions allows healthcare providers including the NHS to remotely monitor patients’ vital signs, symptoms and general wellbeing using the latest mobile and Internet technologies.
As part of the company’s development, company owners and founding directors Zaki Husein, Saadi Hussain, Simon Eyre and Neil Hunt worked closely with Hill Dickinson’s Life Sciences team. The team, led by Jamie Foster, provided legal support on negotiation of the joint venture agreement, including corporate, commercial and IP advice, and liaison with local counsel.
Commenting on Hill Dickinson’s role in advising SmartMed on the deal, Jamie Foster said that exciting prospects now lie ahead for the SmartMed team. He said:
‘Innovation in healthtech lies primarily with small, innovative, start-up businesses that have the ability to see opportunities and adapt quickly as the market develops. SmartMed is a classic example of a business that has seized an opportunity despite the additional complexities of working with a partner based outside the UK.
‘Where healthtech businesses of all sizes inevitably need support – and where Hill Dickinson’s Life Sciences team is ideally placed to assist – is in ensuring they are aware of, and can successfully navigate, the complexities of the frameworks that surround this highly regulated field, as well as being able to successfully commercialise their products. The future for SmartMed is potentially very exciting and we wish Saadi, Simon and Neil every success in this new venture.’
SmartMed CEO, Simon Eyre, commented on the negotiations: ‘A collaboration project of this size and magnanimity is always going to be complex, and our chosen partners being so distant and different culturally added to this challenge. With the assistance and guidance from Hill Dickinson, we were able to overcome the complexities of international law and the hard work and common-sense of all parties involved finally paid off. This is now a major opportunity for SmartMed and it also shows UK continues to lead in innovation for digital health globally.’
SmartMed is a previous winner in the first Mayor of London MedTech Business Awards, a business support initiative run by SEHTA in collaboration with MedCity, held in 2018. Following participation in an earlier accelerator programme run by DigitalHealth.London, which aims to speed up the adoption of technology in London’s NHS, SmartMed has also been accepted onto the UK government’s G-Cloud framework, an initiative targeted at easing procurement by public-sector bodies, which helps it provide more services to the NHS.
Hill Dickinson is a leading international law firm with expertise in life sciences and healthtech. As part of its commitment to supporting SMEs in the digital health space, Hill Dickinson has partnered with SEHTA, the South East Health Technologies Alliance, and Medilink North of England Ltd, to provide legal support to the organisations’ members. Both membership bodies act as representative bodies for the healthcare technology sector, supporting SMEs and fast growth startups.
A free guide, Accessing the NHS Guide for SMEs – Moving Forward, was published by SEHTA in partnership with Hill Dickinson in June 2019. A copy can be requested here via the SEHTA website or by clicking here: https://www.sehta.co.uk/Post/
Issued for and on behalf of Hill Dickinson by Instinctif Partners.
For more information please contact:
Hill Dickinson LLP
Annette Parker
PR and Communications Manager E: annette.parker@hilldickinson.
T: +44 (0)151 600 8807
SmartMed Global
Saadi Hussain, Director
E: saadi@smartmedglobal.com
T: +44 (0) 7710448731
Instinctif Partners (for media enquiries)
Sue Charles / Tim Watson
E: HillDickinson@instinctif.com
T: +44 (0)207 7457 2020
Notes To Editors
About SmartMedTM
SmartMedTM is the trading name of SmartMed Technologies Ltd, which is based in the UK, with headquarters in London and was formed in 2011 (until 2018 known as Appdragon Ltd). SmartMed has offices in the UK (London, Suffolk and Birmingham), Asia and the Middle East and provides services to several NHS Trusts.
SmartMessage is also a trading name of SmartMed Technologies Ltd.
The vision for SmartMed is to improve healthcare outcomes for every patient, anywhere by utilising the flexibility, user friendliness and ubiquity of mobile devices. It provides innovative apps for the healthcare market, including appointment reminder systems, NHS Friends & Family surveying using interactive SMS messaging as well as self-care of chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, stroke and heart disease – all potentially huge drains on the NHS and private healthcare budgets if not adequately managed. www.smartmed.me
About Hill Dickinson
Hill Dickinson LLP is a leading and award-winning international commercial law firm with more than 840 people including 175 partners and legal directors; with offices in Liverpool, Manchester, London, Leeds, Piraeus, Singapore, Monaco and Hong Kong.
The firm delivers advice and strategic guidance spanning the full legal spectrum, from non-contentious advisory and transactional work to all forms of commercial litigation and arbitration.
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