Helen Giza: Martin, do you want to take the VBC question?
Martin Fischer: Yes. Thank you, Oliver.
Helen Giza: And I’ll take the HDF question.
Martin Fischer: Yes. I mean, you’re right, we are ramping up here our cost under management from €6 billion to €8 billion. And yes, it will take some time until we generate savings out of that additional cost under management. So, I would not figure in a big contribution into ’24, and only a smaller one into ’25. But I think we are rather positive and confident in our ability to manage that well.
Helen Giza: Oliver, On the HDF, we’re really excited about that. I mean, obviously, this is a gamechanger for the industry to improve mortality by 23 months — 23%, which translates to about 18 months. That is massive. Obviously, we got really thrilled with the FDA approval, which came kind of a few weeks earlier than we anticipated. Obviously, right now, we are working through our go-to-market strategy, both from a product pricing, but also a health economics perspective on what this means for the kind of the, not just the product business, but for the service business as well. So, we are planning a full commercial launch in 2025. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of interest in this technology. It is significant innovation and maybe some of the first innovation we’ve had here in quite some time.
So, we are thrilled, excited, a gamechanger. Obviously, we will update. I’m not going to disclose my commercial strategy and pricing strategy here, but we will update as we get closer to launch here.
Oliver Metzger: Okay, great. Thank you. A very, very quick follow-up on this. So, it does mean if you bring this technology into your value-based care agreements, that there is kind of resettlement of the terms, or does it bring more benefit to your side?
Helen Giza: I think done right, this brings benefit to the entire industry, Oliver.
Oliver Metzger: Hence, therefore, also to your side. Thank you very much, and get well soon.
Helen Giza: Thank you. I’m sorry about the coughing today, everybody.
Dominik Heger: Thank you. We have one last question — time for one last question. Marianne from Bank of America is the next one.
Marianne Bulot: Thank you for squeezing me in. Just one question on your optimization plan of the portfolio. Maybe if you could remind us the type of assets you’re looking to divest and how advanced you’re in the program? So, if you feel there is much more to do here in 2024? Thank you.
Helen Giza: Thanks, Marianne. Happy to take that question. Obviously, when I started to take a look at the portfolio a year or so ago, we put them into two buckets. It was those assets that were non-core to us and that we didn’t feel we were the best owner of that asset, even though they’re very nice assets and, obviously, have some profitability associated with them. Then, we had other assets, mainly in Care Delivery International, that were in markets where they were unprofitable or the underlying structural reimbursement or profitability had changed or of a scale where we didn’t feel that we could invest to grow or turn them around. So, what you will have seen executed on in 2023 is a little bit of both. On the non-core, I mean, the bigger ones there are obviously NCP and Cura.
But on the clinic exits and international, you will have heard the increasing long list of markets and countries that we are exiting. We are not done. There will be more to come. We can’t put color on them until we have signed agreements and then of course they close afterwards. So, as we did in 2023, we will continue to provide color on those divestments when done. I think the overall sizing that we put out there, I mean I know subject to exchange rates if you think about Argentina and hyperinflation as an example, but as we think about the sizing that we put out there, that’s still good and we will provide progress as we go through 2024. But clearly, for us, as we’re exiting these at speed, the focus and the distraction effort is clear for us and I think gets us back focused on the core business and where we can grow and profitably grow there.
So more to come, a lot still in the works and we’ll provide updates in future quarters. So, thank you.
Dominik Heger: So, we did run out of time. I’m sorry for that. I apologize to those that are still in the queue. I’m sorry for that. Thank you for listening in, and for your great questions, which we appreciate a lot. And we’ll see most of you hopefully soon, and very soon tomorrow, I hope ideally, and looking forward to that. Thank you. Take care.
Helen Giza: Yeah, thanks, everybody.
Martin Fischer: Thank you.
Helen Giza: Take care.
Martin Fischer: Take care.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now concluded. Thank you for choosing Chorus Call, and thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.
