The implication of a potential deal for InstantScripts to the value of BTI shares is interesting, especially since they only recently did a follow on investment. AFR article below:

Wesfarmers’ dealmaking spree in healthcare isn’t letting up. Having acquired Australian Pharmaceutical Industries last year, Street Talk can reveal the conglomerate has turned its attention to online medical prescriptions business InstantScripts.

It’s understood Wesfarmers, via its API portfolio company, has been engaged in bilateral discussions with InstantScripts, which hung up the for-sale sign in October. It is not known whether those talks – which sources said were at an advanced stage as of earlier this month – were still alive.

InstantScripts was founded in 2018 and lets patients obtain express medical scripts in minutes online. It can do scripts for more than 300 medicines, all of which are low-dosage and low clinical risk for ailments including thyroid, urinary tract infections or melatonin for sleep. Wesfarmers’ strategic rationale centred on driving traffic to its pharmacies, sources said.

The business was founded by Asher Freilich, a healthcare investment banker at Citi and New York’s Piper Jaffray who retrained as a doctor. It is backed by investors including Perennial Private Investments, Microequities Asset Management and Bailador Technology Investments.

When Lazard was brought in to test buyer appetite last year, InstantScripts was making around $50 million annual revenue, had 250,000 active users, and connections to nearly 40 per cent of the pharmacies. It was tipped to fetch a $200 million valuation. As part of that process, InstantScripts presented to private equity firms, insurers, pharmacies, digital healthcare players and even deep-pocketed family offices.