Nightingale announced new patent approvals

Translation: Original comment published in Finnish on 5/23/2023 at 12:04 pm.

On Tuesday, Nightingale Health announced that the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH) has granted six new patents for the company’s technology in recent months. The patents are related to predicting the risk of disease and death. We believe that the patents reinforce Nightingale's already strong technological and scientific position. However, the big picture in the investment story still relates to commercialization progress, on which we do not expect new patents to have a significant impact.

Technology patented to determine risks of disease and death

The scientific basis for Nightingale's technology has been established over a long period of time in studies where the company's technology has been proven to predict the risk of developing several diseases from a single blood sample. According to the company, the new patents complement the company’s existing regulatory approvals and broad scientific validation. Four of the new patents relate to determining whether an individual is at risk of developing renal disease, atrial fibrillation, digestive system disease, and pre-eclampsia. Two of the patents concern the risk of dying from breast cancer and prostate cancer. Nightingale also said that it has several other patent applications pending at the PRH and that it plans to expand its patents internationally. We believe that the patenting of technology reinforces Nightingale's already strong technological and scientific validation position.

Investment story continues to rely on long-term commercial successes

Nightingale's investment story relies heavily on success in technology commercialization, which saw the first clear growth leap in its latest earnings report, which we commented on here. Continued strong growth will require the company to secure new commercial contracts, which it is working on during the current financial year. Growth opportunities rely on the penetration of the company's technology-enabled consumer services and success in integrating these services with existing healthcare providers' blood sample streams. However, there have been no large-scale successes yet. Investors must believe in a commercial breakthrough of the company's technology over the next decade, have a very long investment horizon and be prepared to lose the invested capital.