Medical hub in US listing move

PERTH-BASED medical information business virtualmedicalcentre.com has launched itself into the US market via a reverse merger with Cliff Rock Resources, a shell company listed on the OTC Bulletin Board.

VMC chairman and CEO Wayne Hughes said the agreement would further strengthen the interest from overseas investors and enable the company to pursue global growth initiatives.

“We had an overwhelming level of interest from investors, but they would only come on board if we were listed,” Mr Hughes said.

“A number of parties had approached us in the US with reverse merger opportunities, so that drove our desire to become a part of it.”

The OTCBB is a regulated quotation service in the US for companies that are not listed on one of the major stock exchanges.

Unlike Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange, there are no listing requirements; therefore smaller companies that are not eligible for the larger exchanges can gain exposure to potential investors.

Perth corporate advisory firm Albion Capital Partners assisted VMC with the reverse merger.

Albion’s principal Gavin Rezos previously raised capital for VMC in 2007, when an online prescription portal was on the agenda. Mr Rezos said VMC is still looking to acquire online businesses in Australia, but there is now also the ability to acquire US businesses.

“We still have strong interest in MyOnlinePharmacy.com.au and are keen to go and pursue that,” Mr Hughes said. “We’ll certainly get it up and running this calendar year, that’s all I can say.”

Mr Hughes told WA Business News the listing would pit VMC against US online heavyweight, WebMD. He said VMC had a number of competitive advantages over the incumbent, including the nature of how the content was generated.

“We’re looking to emulate WebMD – they have done a great job over the years – but what we have that’s unique is content from our significant network of unpaid doctors, rather than [commissioned] articles,” Mr Hughes said.

Mr Hughes and Perth oncologist Andrew Dean established VMC more than seven years ago.

The portal links two sites; one provides information to consumers and a second, password-protected site, offers information to medical professionals.

A team of medical directors and professionals that makes up an ‘editorial advisory board’ verifies the content.

VMC’s content is updated every 12 hours and currently receives 750,000 hits per month.

The accuracy of VMC’s information has led to a partnership with Telstra’s BigPond website, which licenses VMC’s content for consumers.

“BigPond looked at WebMD and other possibilities from around the globe and the reason they chose us was because of our authentic content,” Mr Hughes said.

“Since we’ve been involved with BigPond, the phone rings for us for a change. And they are keen to expand that presence; they’ve approached us to contribute content to other initiatives such as the Telstra T-Hub. They like the quality of what we do.”

He said that although he was now chief executive of a US-listed company, VMC would remain based in Perth and has appointed representation in Sydney and Los Angeles.

The company is also looking at a New York presence.

“VMC’s founders and a lot of our medical directors are based in Perth so it fits well having our main presence here,” Mr Hughes said.

“There are some challenges but they’re probably outweighed by the strength of having an online business. Things can be done anywhere and it doesn’t affect the nature of the service provided or the quality of the products.”