NHS patient data providers Arcturis Data and Akrivia Health have reportedly agreed an all-share merger valued at £140m, in a deal that would create one of the UK’s largest independent healthcare data groups.

The deal, first reported by Sky News and expected to complete in the autumn, will create what industry sources described as the UK’s largest “sovereign” NHS data aggregator and patient data platform. It comes at a time of heightened debate over the ownership and use of NHS patient information, potentially creating a major British-owned alternative to US-backed providers.

The combined business will have relationships with 40 NHS trusts and access to data covering more than 20 million patients currently in treatment and more than 100 million aggregated patient records.

It will have particular strengths in oncology, neurology and mental health, immunology and cardiovascular health, with pharmaceutical partners including AstraZeneca, Bristol Myers Squibb, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis and Teva.

The merger also gives the businesses greater scale as they compete in a market increasingly dominated by US technology group Palantir, whose NHS England data platform is forecast to cost as much as £1.1bn.

Arcturis, formerly Sensyne Health, was rescued from financial difficulties in 2022 through a £26m recapitalisation and recently raised a further £10m from investors including Lansdowne Partners and Salica Investments. Akrivia was spun out of the University of Oxford and the NHS in 2019.

David Newton, Akrivia’s CEO, is expected to take a senior role in the merged business, while Arcturis CEO Alex Snow is also likely to remain in leadership. The precise management structure has yet to be confirmed.

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