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Health benefits get a Grammys mention Read in browser
Endpoints News
Tuesday, 4 February 2025
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Cuts at Noom
Even after a fair amount of resetting, health tech wasn’t immune to January layoffs. 
Noom is the latest to make a reduction, Ngai Yeung scoops. The company has made a big push into prescribing weight loss drugs at a time when traditional weight loss businesses (relying on dieting and behavior changes) haven’t been as lucrative as they once were. 
We’re still waiting to see whether prescriptions are a saving grace for companies like Noom and competitor WeightWatchers. They’re up against major competition (one of whom bought a TV spot at the Super Bowl), and, of course, compounded weight loss drugs — a key part of the business — may not be around forever. 
Read the scoop here. Have a tip about big changes at digital health startups? Send it Ngai's way.
- Lydia
Here’s what’s new
How opioid addiction treatment startup Bicycle Health reached a profit
Bi­cy­cle Health, a provider of tele­health treat­ment for opi­oid use dis­or­der, has hit a ma­jor mile­stone that’s elud­ed many health tech star­tups: It turned a prof­it.
Exclusive: Noom cuts coaches and customer service staff as fewer sign up
Noom laid off em­ploy­ees af­ter its bet on pre­scrib­ing GLP-1 drugs was­n't enough to off­set loss­es from its orig­i­nal pro­gram.
Quote of the week

“Record labels need to treat their artists as valuable employees with a livable wage and health insurance and protection. Labels, we got you, but do you got us?”
Chappell Roan used her acceptance speech at the Grammys on Sunday to advocate for healthcare coverage and liveable wages from record labels, "especially to developing artists."
This week in health Тech
Troy Tazbaz, the director of digital health at FDA, left the organization in January after two years with the agency. “I believe the true transformative power of AI does not lie in any single product or breakthrough capability. Instead, it is compelling us to rethink conventional norms and tackle critical challenges necessary to modernize healthcare across its value chain,” Tazbaz said in a LinkedIn post about his departure.
Walgreens suspended its quarterly dividend on Thursday — the first time in nearly a century — in a move to preserve cash. The action is “likely an indication that generating cash flow remains a challenge and that WBA is still not out of the woods in turning around its retail pharmacy business,” TD Cowen analysts wrote in a research note. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports, investors are still angling for a take-private deal despite a CNBC reporter saying that the deal is “mostly dead.” 
Cigna on Monday made a series of announcements meant to address the frustration Americans are feeling about their healthcare coverage. Among the changes Cigna said it plans to make is connecting executive compensation to customer satisfaction.
Quartet, a New York-based mental health startup with venture backers such as GV and Oak HC/FT, said it’s been acquired by NeuroFlow. Quartet also said it sold the telepsychiatry business it bought in 2021,  innovaTel, to Iris Telehealth. NeuroFlow said it plans to keep serving Quartet’s existing customers, which includes Independence Blue Cross, the Philadelphia-based insurer that previously invested in Quartet. 
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