Epocrates, maker of popular medical PDA programs, files for IPO

Epocrates on iPhone

According to the blog 24/7 Wall St:

"Epocrates Inc. submitted an SEC filing to come public via an IPO. The filing shows a proposed maximum aggregate offering price of $75 million. They applied to trade on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “EPOC.”

Epocrates provides medical information support tools to healthcare professionals. The company has strong brand recognition and over 500,000 healthcare professionals actively subscribe to use their product, including 1 in 4 doctors and 1 in 3 medical students. The technology allows healthcare professionals to access medical information on various devices, such as Blackberries, Palms, iPhones, desktops and PC’s. The company generated enough in 2007 to pull it out of the red and into the green."

The market for health-related companies is not bad right now. The WSJ recently reported that many cities are closing factories and opening (or expanding) hospitals.

One of the largest private hospitalist companies IPC The Hospitalist Co. launched IPO this year. According to MarketWatch: "The North Hollywood, Calif. provider of inpatient care raised $83 million by offering 5.2 million shares in the middle of its $15-$17 price range. In a sign of health, the company increased the size of the offering from 4.7 million shares." Click here to see the current stock price chart from Google Finance.

I used the Epocrates Pharmacopeia daily as a resident along the excellent handbook of Medicine (updated yearly) by Current Clinical Strategies.

The basic version of the program is free both online and as a PDA/smartphone download. More sophisticated versions like Epocrates SxDx cost around $ 80-100 per year. Epocrates is ranked at number one on our list of Free Medical Programs for Windows Mobile / Pocket PC.

Google Subscribed Links allows you to add "trusted sources" to your online search, including Epocrates. I like the way it shows the Epocrates subscribed link in the first few results when searching for medications.

References:
Epocrates Online Pharmacopeia is Now Free
A doctor asks which portable computer/PDA/smartphone to choose
Review of Epocrates on the iPhone. Tech Medicine, 07/2008.

Updated: 07/18/2008