Rome wasn’t built in a day, & likewise its taking Trellus Health (TRLS ) a little longer than anticipated to convert a ‘robust’ pipeline of US B2B prospects into agreed contracts. Why?
Well, I suspect this is simply due to the ‘ground-breaking’ nature of the company’s resilience, science & AI based chronic disease management platform. Which is focused firstly on IBD (ie Crohns & colitis), and involves upfront client education, leading to non-standard sales cycles.
The good news though is that healthcare insurers & corporates are becoming increasingly interested in the service - with several “in late-stage negotiation” & expected to sign in Q1’22.
Plus once these initial deals have been concluded - more real world clinical & benefit data will be collected, making it (in theory) easier & quicker to land follow-on deals.
Wrt the numbers, FY21 revenues, LBITDA & net cash are predicted to be $30k, -$5.9m & $30m respectively vs Singers’ (house broker) previously at $0.3m, -$8.2m and $29.1m. Again reflecting the rollout of the TrellusElevate platform in the B2B space being pushed a few months to the right.
Equally though, this opens up an opportunity to bring-forward the commercialisation of a similar Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) proposition. Piggy-backing in the same States (ie New York, New Jersey & Connecticut) as the formal B2B launch in Q1’22, after “very encouraging” results from “live IBD patient testing”.
The focus for 2022 will be on running additional demonstration programmes (eg Mount Sinai Health System), winning new B2B contracts (eg Connected Health Medicine) and recruiting DTC patients to gather more real-life information. Plus it is envisaged there should be ample funds “to sustain TRLS’ [rapid] growth through to H1’23”.
CEO Monique Fayad adding: "We are extremely pleased with the progress made this year against our technical, operational and commercialization plans.
Initial feedback from IBD patients using the TrellusElevate platform has been consistently positive, as they are delighted by its ease of use and the level of support and interaction received from their licensed multidisciplinary care team.
While the sales cycle has proven lengthier than expected, we remain excited by the medium-term prospects for the business on B2B growth and are pleased to be able to offer a DTC service much sooner than we first anticipated."
