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BetterCells’ online hub to help people make better healthcare choices

Last updated: 02:34 18 Sep 2018 BST, First published: 12:34 17 Sep 2018 BST

Snapshot

The company is utilising technology and big data to tackle the growing healthcare crisis and personalise treatment options for preventative care.

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BetterCells Ltd is developing an online platform that aims to connect functional and integrative medical practitioners with people looking to improve their health.

The company’s innovative wellness hub is driven by the ‘better mind, better body’ motto, utilising personal longitudinal health data to tailor individualised health solutions.

The privately held company has focused its attention on global markets, viewing the US$2.2 trillion healthcare crisis and its $170 billion Australian counterpart – as growing problems which can potentially be mitigated with better preventative care.

 

BetterCells founder and managing director Andrew Haythorpe described the online hub at an initial public offering (IPO) information session last week as ‘filtering out the noise’ in functional and integrative medicine markets.

He said: “A lot of what we’re doing is helping people get the help that they need.”

“It’s really using the best science and the best tools to put yourself in the best shape moving forwards.”

By looking at history and personal results as well as DNA, BetterCells can help people wanting to counter their epigenetic risk factors and switch on or off the expression of a genetic aberration or disadvantage.

BetterCells’ platform allows users quick easy and online consultations with their preferred practitioner from the comfort of their own home.

The system securely stores health data, providing individuals with more control over their own path to wellness.

Exploring options to float

Haythorpe is a venture capitalist who holds a 21% stake in the company.

Seven other major shareholders hold another 29%, including Magenta City Pty Ltd at 8%, Clariden Capital Pty Ltd (6%), Maldive Pty Ltd (5%), Manikato Financial Services Pty Ltd (5%), and A Cunningham and N Snooks (a joint 5%).

Haythorpe is fielding new investor inquiries while the company also explores a listing on the ASX, NASDAQ or Toronto exchanges.

BetterCells' growth and development timeline

 

Haythorpe told Proactive Investors that they were ‘exploring where the best cost benefit would be’, pointing out that North American markets would provide a significant opportunity.

He noted, however, that there ‘seems to be huge untapped market potential in Asia’, contrasting that benefit against the better level of existing service and infrastructure within the health space in North American markets.

Well-funded for listing

The company’s budget features about $400,000 for an ASX listing or $1 million for a North American float.

BetterCells has also budgeted about $200,000 for artificial intelligence development, $1 million for accelerated coding and an app launch, $1 million for accelerating its launch in the US and $1 million for accelerating its Asian launch.

Among the newer developments the company is progressing this financial year are a compounding tool development, continued marketing in Australia and marketing in the US.

 

BetterCells’ Haythorpe has personally tried out the company’s health-focused portal and the testing services it delivers with laboratory partners.

He found his iodine, phosphate and selenium levels needed raising, and that he had high levels of mercury and cadmium.

“I had a choice of either ignoring that or doing something about it,” Haythorpe said.

“The first question I had to ask myself is what’s the cost and what’s the benefit of doing something about it.”

He said the dollar cost was small, especially given addressing his highlighted issues could extend the number of years he had left؅ to live his life.

“The cost in terms of health is not a lot in terms of life capital.

“When you look at the effect of toxicity and autoimmune inflammatory responses, and the absence of low essential elements, again it has substantial implications for quality of life and longevity.”

Haythorpe's test results on the BetterCells app

 

OligoScan spectrophotometer

Key to collecting health data is BetterCells’ use of the OligoScan, which detects trace elements and heavy metal intoxication in human tissue.

OligoScan is a handheld spectrophotometry device, originally manufactured by French company Physioquanta, which measures the absorbance level or the optical density of a specific chemical or mineral substance.

Due to different densities, different types of compounds will emit or reflect light over a certain range of wavelengths.

Pharmacists Tom Andrew and Sol Benn performing OligoScan spot tests

 

Benefits of big data

Compounding pharmacist and BetterCells-linked practitioner Sol Benn said the OligoScan device was a ‘means of seeing what heavy metals and toxins are in your body, in the cells themselves’.

Benn said: “What we’ve found is that it’s generational. Your parents would’ve had mercury amalgams or used aluminium pots to cook with, and this has been passed on through them into you, into your grandchildren.

“You can see what’s being handed on from father to son, from father to daughter – through the family – and you can do something about it.”

Tom Andrew, another of BetterCells’ connected practitioners and a pharmacist at Captain Stirling Pharmacy, told Proactive Investors that the customer response to the OligoScan was very positive.

He said that one of the interesting aspects of the test results was seeing correlated levels of minerals within family members, which represented the beginnings of BetterCells’ aspiration to utilise big data to further refine its testing and integrative capabilities.

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