The Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX) has struck an agreement with German-based e-procurement solutions provider,
vamedis*, to acquire vamedis*’ browser technology and offer the company’s customers membership of the GHX trading platform.
vamedis* will become a shareholder in GHX and will be represented on its board.
The move – a significant step in the consolidation of electronic trading in European healthcare – not only gives GHX access to vamedis*’ browser technology, but also brings a list of leading suppliers under the umbrella of the GHX neutral trading exchange.
The agreement is especially important in terms of providing GHX with access to German markets. The companies behind vamedis* – 3M Medica, B. Braun, Coloplast, Krauth Medical, Lohmann & Raucher, Molnlcyke Health Care and Paul Hartmann – are big names in German healthcare who had stayed out of the GHX.
A GHX spokeswoman emphasised that the agreement is neither a merger nor an acquisition and that both companies will continue as separate entities. In vamedis*’ case this will consist of providing “complementary consulting services to the hospital marketplace”.
GHX chief executive officer, Mike Mahony, said, “This agreement adds immense value by providing access to a greater range of suppliers and products.”
vamedis* chief executive, Jurgen Timm, said that the agreement created the basis for the future of healthcare procurement in Europe.
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