DocMorris grows in the prescription business and invests incrementally in new Rx customers – Biotech Investments

Frauenfeld, 20 August 2024

Press release
Ad hoc announcement pursuant to Art. 53 LR

DocMorris grows in the prescription business and invests incrementally in new Rx customers

• Sales of prescription medicines (Rx) grew year-on-year in July
• Monthly number of new Rx customers quadrupled
• Break-even achieved excluding eRx in the first half of 2024
• Outlook 2024 reduced

CardLink^[1] for redeeming e-prescriptions is driving the Rx business: In July, the number of new Rx customers increased again and quadrupled compared to before CardLink. This momentum also continued for revenue: Rx sales in July 2024 grew by 6 per cent in local currency compared to the previous year and by 36 per cent compared to average monthly Rx sales in the first quarter of 2024. The volume-based market share of the e-prescription business is growing continuously and already stood at 0.5 per cent in July.[2] Customers are also responding very positively to the DocMorris app, with monthly downloads more than quadrupling in the last 12 months. This success is due in particular to the effectiveness of the cross-media marketing campaign with the “Gesundbergs”.

Break-even reached excluding eRx
DocMorris continued on its path to profitability in the first half of 2024. Further structural cost savings and efficiency improvements totalling CHF 14 million compared to the previous year led to break-even in the business excluding eRx. Including the eRx marketing investment of CHF 13 million, adjusted EBITDA improved slightly to minus CHF 20.1 million. As announced on 11 July 2024, external revenue^[3] increased to CHF 530.1 million in the first half of the year (up 8.4 per cent in local currency and 5.7 per cent in Group currency) compared to the previous year. In Germany, external revenue rose by 8.9 per cent in local currency. The Europe segment with Spain and France achieved a turnaround in growth in the second quarter (plus 3.0 per cent). In the first half of the year, sales grew by 0.6 per cent, while adjusted EBITDA improved by CHF 1.4 million to minus CHF 0.7 million.

TeleClinic is growing dynamically and profitably
Germany’s leading telemedicine provider TeleClinic continued its strong growth. Revenue doubled compared to the same period last year. For the full year, growth to over CHF 10 million is expected, with a very attractive gross margin and double-digit EBITDA margin. Over 2,800 registered doctors actively use the technical platform and treat over 1.3 million cases per year. TeleClinic is an important pillar of DocMorris’ health ecosystem, which is also being further expanded through patient-specific offerings for chronic diseases. Its growth confirms the health ecosystem strategy.

Liquidity further strengthened
In April 2024, DocMorris refinanced its convertible bond maturing in March 2025 with a new five-year convertible bond. DocMorris received the full earn-out of CHF 47 million from the sale of the Swiss business. As at 30 June 2024, cash and cash equivalents amounted to CHF 195 million. In addition, the sale of the property of the former Swiss operations was completed in August 2024 and generated proceeds of CHF 25.6 million.

Outlook
DocMorris communicated an indicative outlook in March due to the systemic transition to e-prescriptions and the unpredictability of the Rx ramp-up.

The limited market access until the introduction of the CardLink solution led to declining paper prescription-based sales and lower contribution margins. Since mid-April, the Rx business has been growing continuously due to the successful acquisition of new customers. Based on the success of the marketing campaign, DocMorris is increasing its investments in new customer acquisition. The OTC business is developing according to plan. As a result, the outlook for 2024 has been adjusted:

• Increase in external revenue by 5 to 10 per cent, including e-prescriptions (previously indicatively more than 10 per cent);
• Adjusted EBITDA of around minus CHF 50 million, including e-prescription (previously indicatively CHF 0 million to minus CHF 35 million);
• Capital expenditure of around CHF 30 million (previously indicatively CHF 30 million to CHF 40 million).

In the medium term, an adjusted EBITDA margin of 8 per cent remains the target.

The half-year report and presentation are available on the website as a download here (corporate.docmorris.com | Investor Relations | Financial publications).

Investors and analyst contact
Dr. Daniel Grigat, Head of Investor Relations & Sustainability
Email: ir@docmorris.com, phone: +41 52 560 58 10

Media contact
Torben Bonnke, Director Communications
Email: media@docmorris.com, phone: +49 171 864 888 1

Agenda

DocMorris
The Swiss-based DocMorris AG is a leading company in the fields of online pharmacy, marketplace and professional healthcare with strong brands in Germany and other European countries. Deliveries are mainly from the highly automated logistics centre in Heerlen, the Netherlands, with a capacity of over 27 million parcels per year. In Spain and France, the company operates the leading marketplace for health and personal care products in Southern Europe. With its business model, DocMorris offers its patients, customers and partners a broad range of products and services. In doing so, DocMorris is pursuing its vision of creating a digital health ecosystem for everyone to manage their health in one click. The company was renamed from Zur Rose Group AG to DocMorris AG in May 2023 after the Swiss business was sold to Migros/Medbase. Excluding the Swiss business, about 1,600 employees in Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, France and Switzerland generated an external revenue of CHF 1,038 million serving currently 10 million active customers. The shares of DocMorris AG are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (securities number 4261528, ISIN CH0042615283, ticker DOCM). For further information, please visit corporate.docmorris.com.
 

^[1]  CardLink enables the mobile use of the electronic health card (eGK) without a PIN and the smartphone via NFC technology (Near Field Communication) to redeem e-prescriptions.
^[2]  DocMorris share of redeemed e-prescriptions compared to the total number of redeemed e-prescriptions according to Gematik in July.
^[3]  External revenue consists of the consolidated revenue of DocMorris plus online revenues of pharmacies supplied by DocMorris, less the consolidated revenue from supplying them.