Digital healthcare company CallHealth expects better valuations post COVID-19

Though struck by the cash crunch and inadequate drug availability, the virtual healthcare company sees a silver lining in the wider acceptance of its business model and better valuation

Shalini Dagar

April 14, 2020 / 16:04 IST

While the COVID-19 health emergency has disrupted the supply chain and the cash flows for digital healthcare startup, CallHealth Services. In an ironic twist, it has also improved the marketability of its business model in the eyes of prospective investors.

"The investors' appetite for CallHealth has certainly improved, but I am not sure about their appetite for the Indian market also," Satish Kottakota, CFO of CallHealth., said.

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Out in the market to raise $30-50 million as equity for growth over the next three to six months, CallHealth expects a dent of 10-20 percent of its projected revenue for the FY21 as the physical side of its business get hit due to the coronavirus epidemic-related national lockdown.

Logistical glitches such as difficulties in obtaining curfew passes for its workers and constraints in drug availability has meant that the company has irretrievably lost 10-20 percent of business opportunity this year.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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