Looks like .70 is still holding firm.
Still waiting for the S1's from Medsite.com to hit Edgar so JDX can give us the promo release they have promised and hopefully some insight into the business deal. The attached article is from Investor's Business Daily which many of you probably already know. According to this article Medsite.com presently sells $10 million worth of supplies and books over the net a year...according to the CNBC coverage last month they get an addition 40% of revenues from advertising....this puts the last years revenues at around $15-18 million with estimates for $50 million for 2000 from the last news release. This may sound like small potatoes but this revenue is much large than most of the medical internet companies presently holding down multi-billion dollar market capitals.
Investor's Business Daily, August 10, 1999
Sundeep Bhan is helping make history. As head of a New York-based Internet health care firm, he's in the thick of a big shift in the way products and services are sold in the $1 trillion industry.
Bhan's company mirrors some of these changes. Founded in 1995 by four University of Pennsylvania graduates, Medsite.com began life as a seller of software spell-checkers for doctors who use complex medical terms in their writing.
The company had trouble distributing their products to physicians, so in 1997 it started selling its wares online.
And sales rose.
''That's when we realized the power of the Internet,'' Bhan said.
Today, Bhan's company sells $10 million worth of such products as medical books, software and medical instruments over the Web each year. He hopes to keep expanding his offerings.
Bhan recent spoke with Investor's Business Daily about were online health care is headed.
IBD:
How is the Internet changing the way drugs are sold to doctors and patients?
Bhan:
The trend is that as more doctors turn to the Internet, it becomes another distribution channel where we can reach them. Earlier this year, statistics showed about 50% of all physicians in the U.S. were on the Internet. More recent numbers show about 60% to 70% of doctors online, with about 85% of all physicians expected to be on the Net by next year.
Contrast this with the fact that pharmaceutical firms are spending from $8 billion to $10 billion a year to sell drugs to doctors through conventional means. It's just more efficient to deliver information from pharmaceutical companies to doctors over the Internet.
IBD:
How is most of the $8 billion to $10 billion being spent by drug companies to reach doctors?
Bhan:
A lot of it is spent on personnel, people who actually go out and sell to doctors. And they are spending an average of $200-$400 per visit.
Over the last few years, the number of marketing reps has increased, while the amount of time they interact with doctors has actually gone down.
This isn't efficient. More time is needed to educate physicians about more complex and novel therapies. There's a dire need to use alternative mediums to reach these physicians, and the Internet does that.
IBD:
What other impact is the Internet having on the medical community?
Bhan:
If you look at the health care sector in the U.S. today, you keep hearing it's a $1 trillion industry. But $250 billion is wasted every year because of inefficiency, fragmented systems and unnecessary paperwork.
The tools being created over the Internet allow us to create the right services and eliminate some of this waste.
IBD:
How is the Internet changing traditional doctor-patient relationships?
Bhan:
We're just beginning to see products and services over the Net that are changing doctor-patient relations.
Everybody knows about red tape: the interview with the nurse and filing out clipboards and explaining your medical problem five times before getting to see a doctor. In the managed care process, there's more waiting. You need clearance from a primary care physician before you see a specialist.
But the Internet can help create tools that get around this. The patient can log onto a doctor's home page and submit this information directly to the doctor. Patients can set up an appointment with their doctor over the Internet.
Then, after an ailment is diagnosed, you can get patient care info from the Net. The flow of information going back and forth is much more efficient.
IBD:
Is the Internet replacing many services that were provided by physicians?
Bhan:
These aren't services that will completely replace the doctor. These are (Internet- based) tools and services that can make doctor and patient lives easier and more efficient.
IBD:
What impact is the Net having on the medical student community?
Bhan:
About 99% of all medical students today are on the Internet. This is part of the paradigm shift we're talking about. These young doctors are growing up on the Internet, growing up with Net-based products and services. So companies like us will grow up with them.
Best Regards
KEITH |
