KPJ Healthcare signed an MoU with Samsung Electronics to explore and advance precision medicine and diagnostics
in Malaysia, under the facilitation of LAC Medical Supplies and the support of KPJ Healthcare University College.
Precision technologies is expected to improve outcomes, reduce cost and enable the development of better drugs and
treatments. KPJ Healthcare Bhd (KPJ) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (SEC) have signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) for the advancement of precision medicine and diagnostics in Malaysia. The collaboration’s aim is to explore innovative technologies and collaborative opportunities over the next 6 months. LAC Medical Supplies Sdn Bhd (LAC) will be the key facilitator in ensuring the provision of complete information, services, and training requirements.
Focus on precision technologies. Precision medicine tailors to specific medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient, and has been improved rapidly since pre-pandemic to: (i) improve patient outcomes, (ii) reduce healthcare costs, and (iii) enable the development of more effective drugs and treatments. Both KPJ and SEC will also be exploring remote reporting systems and smart hospital solutions for upcoming ambulatory care centres and new hospital projects.
More integrated hospital system. Leveraging assistive artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic technology and data analytics, KPJ aims to improve patient care through (i) unified outpatient systems, (ii) intra-hospital use of telemedicine, (iii) clinical innovation centers, and (iv) modernised hospital information system development. This is expected to be supported by KPJ Healthcare University College (KPJ-HUC) under its research management centre.
Mitigation from global healthcare setbacks. Limited medical equipment, limited skilled workers, and high treatment costs had been recurring setbacks to healthcare providers globally. Research house MIDF opines that precision medicine and diagnostics is the right measure to mitigate these issues moving forward. The collaboration with SEC and under the supervision of LAC, as well as the assistance from KPJ-HUC, would render KPJ the upper hand in seeking more opportunities for new technology in ensuring its operations continue to be robust in the long run.
MIDF makes no changes to our earnings forecast at this juncture, as we believe the announced partnership is a preliminary stage in exploring the technologies and opportunities of precision medicine and diagnostics. Hence, MIDF said it maintains a BUY call on KPJ with the target price of RM1.48, by pegging a PER of 26.8x to the revised EPS23 of 5.5sen. The PER is based on KPJ’s 5-year average PER.
