I think the message is a tough one to get through for investors... Our biotech competitors mostly address well-established, accepted, easily observable and indisputable medical/physiological conditions (cancer, heart disease, lymphodema etc) - and these conditions were understood and accepted long before recent innovative treatments were developed.
Despite an incredible amount of literature on mental health/illness, there are still strong undercurrents of doubt and even cynicism across society - and this is in Australia where we've had the likes of beyondblue and Black Dog plugging awareness and 'stigma reduction' for 15 years. We're moving in the right direction, but the wheels are turning slowly. So unlike much of the competition, MEB also has to drive societal change in the way many people understand the conditions it aims to address.
It's still a sensitive topic in organisations, but employers are being forced to consider mental health / wellness as the evidence stacks up of the enormous cost to workplaces - and importantly, the return on good investments (reported by PwC as $2.3:1 but many studies bump that up to almost $6:1 when considering the social, as well the economic ROI). Organisations like PwC and Jacobs jumping on this is a phenomenal vote of confidence in MEB and providing the company keeps delivering and clients keep coming back for more, it is just a matter of time before this goes gangbusters.
And all that is before even considering consumer and integrated health! I'm half surprised and half bored when I see the worm looking like it does - surprised because there are cleverer people than me out there who aren't on the bandwagon - and bored because I know what happens... As a long time mental health service consumer and nerd, I know that this technology *will* change the way the entire world approaches MH...
By the end of the year, MEB will serve THE largest total accessible market in all of healthcare. And we're at 0.14. Mind blown.
MEB Price at posting:
14.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
