UCP Merchant Medicine (UCPMM) will work with VedaBio to position its platform, designed to deliver speed, simplicity, breadth, accuracy and economics in a single test, for the urgent care channel, informed by UCPMM's network of 78 health system clients and more than 300 urgent care centers.
Pre-launch groundwork begins now, ahead of VedaBio’s anticipated commercial launch, subject to FDA clearance. The engagement is structured as a long-term, multi-year relationship.
SAN DIEGO & FRANKLIN, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--VedaBio, a biotechnology company transforming molecular detection, today announced it has selected UCP Merchant Medicine (UCPMM), a health system management company serving the urgent care channel, to help position its target amplification-free, CRISPR-based molecular diagnostics platform for the urgent care setting. Under the multi-year engagement, UCPMM will work with VedaBio to establish the market expectations, performance benchmarks, training requirements and pricing references to position the platform for success in urgent care, supporting VedaBio’s goal of making it a first-in-class, leading testing platform in the industry.
Urgent care sees hundreds of millions of patient visits each year, more than a third of them for respiratory infectious disease, exactly the complaints molecular testing answers. Respiratory testing in U.S. urgent care alone represents a market of more than 65M patients. Yet the setting remains significantly underserved: in the hospital, four of five patients receive an actionable result from syndromic testing, while in decentralized settings only about one in five do. Molecular platforms built around central-laboratory economics and workflows have not been able to close that gap.
Five pillars, delivered together
VedaBio's target amplification-free platform is in development to meet all five of the requirements urgent care has never been able to get in one test:
- Speed: an answer in under 10 minutes, including hands-on time, fast enough to treat before the patient leaves;
- Simplicity: a workflow as easy as the antigen tests clinics run today, with no laboratory and no specially trained operator;
- Breadth: a comprehensive pathogen panel from a single swab;
- Accuracy: gold standard molecular accuracy; and
- Economics: built on established reimbursement and profitability in today’s settings.
Amplification-based testing forces compromises that make it impossible today to meet these five pillars in one test.
Groundwork first, then a channel-ready launch
The engagement is structured in two phases. Before potential launch, the companies will work through five sequenced workstreams, all to be developed ahead of anticipated FDA clearance: an evidence-based demand forecast for the channel; an operator business case and return-on-investment models; a clinic education and training program refined with clinic staff; defensible pricing references; and introduction of the company to urgent care leadership at UCPMM's symposium. The goal is that by potential clearance, demand has been estimated, price is set, and the channel has been introduced.
After clearance, UCPMM will support the platform’s introduction into its operator network and the broader urgent care community, led by VedaBio's own commercial team, with wider distribution added later as the installed base grows. The approach is designed to minimize the lag that typically separates regulatory clearance from meaningful revenue when a company enters a new channel cold. The VedaBio, UCPMM relationship extends well beyond launch: over its multi-year term, UCPMM will continue to inform the benchmarks, requirements and channel readiness against which the platform is proven in live clinical settings.
“A lot of very good diagnostic platforms have failed, and not because of the science,” said Frederic Sweeney, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of VedaBio. “They failed because they underestimated the power of the right channel, and how much pre-commercial work has to happen before launch day. Selecting UCPMM is our answer to both. We are doing that work now, alongside the people who build and run these centers, so that if and when we reach the market we are not introducing ourselves. We will be starting to fill orders.”
UCPMM builds, runs and convenes modern US urgent care. It serves 78 health system clients and more than 300 modern urgent care centers, with engagements in all 50 states, and carries a Net Promoter Score of 94 against an industry average of 71. Centers in its network average 34-minute door-to-door visit times against an industry average of 58. “Every test our operators use today forces a trade-off,” said Brandon Robertson, Founder and President of UCP Merchant Medicine. “They give up breadth to get speed, or accuracy to get simplicity, or the economics never work at all. A single test that delivers all five at once, speed, simplicity, breadth, accuracy and economics, changes what a visit can accomplish. We are thrilled to work with VedaBio to help position this platform for the industry, and our clients will be among the first to see it, evaluate it and put it to work in their clinics.”
“The five pillars matter clinically,” said Josh Russell, MD, Chief Medical Officer at UCP Merchant Medicine. “If a clinician can get a molecular-accuracy answer across a comprehensive pathogen panel before the patient leaves the room, the encounter changes. You treat the patient who needs treating, you have the evidence to withhold antibiotics and/or steroids from the patient who does not, and you avoid the callback. That points toward better antibiotic stewardship, fewer return visits, and a patient who leaves knowing what they have and what to do about it, which is what drives satisfaction in this setting. Those are the outcomes operators and their medical directors care about.”
About VedaBio
VedaBio is building first-in-class diagnostic products designed to deliver rapid, accurate, and accessible testing in decentralized and point-of-need settings. Powered by the company’s CRISPR platform, which is designed to detect targets without the amplification step required by conventional methods, these products represent the next generation of molecular diagnostics, built to bring uncompromising high medical value to the decentralized setting. VedaBio is headquartered in San Diego, California. For more information, visit www.vedabio.com.
About UCP Merchant Medicine
UCP Merchant Medicine is a health system management company serving the urgent care channel. UCPMM builds, runs and convenes modern US urgent care, serving 78 health system clients and more than 300 modern urgent care centers with engagements in all 50 states. Its work spans strategy, center standup and optimization; clinical workflow through Intellivisit's clinical AI; and industry convening through the on-demand care symposium. UCPMM is headquartered at 231 Public Square, Suite 300, Franklin, TN 37064.
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding VedaBio's platform in development, including statements about its target product profile, intended use, intended performance, intended workflow, anticipated regulatory and commercial timing, market size, potential clinical and patient-experience benefits, and the anticipated benefits of the multi-year engagement described herein. VedaBio's platform is investigational, has not been cleared, authorized or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is not available for sale. Statements regarding turnaround time, ease of use, panel breadth, accuracy and economics reflect product-development objectives and are not representations of current device capability, and no representations of safety, effectiveness or comparative performance are made or intended. Statements regarding potential effects on antibiotic stewardship, return visits, patient experience or other clinical outcomes are expectations only and have not been established in clinical studies. Actual product characteristics, clinical outcomes, regulatory outcomes, adoption and commercial timing may differ materially from current expectations. VedaBio undertakes no obligation to update these statements.
Contacts
Media Contacts
VedaBio: Karen Sharma, CG Life, ksharma@cglife.com
UCP Merchant Medicine: Brandon Robertson, President, UCP Merchant Medicine, brandon.robertson@ucpmm.com
