Frank Adell’s Post

Our President, AI, Sona Chandra spoke with Maddyness UK about entrepreneurship and her advice for future founders, our working culture at Pangea, and how we are overcoming our biggest challenges to develop transformative therapeutics that can improve the quality of life and health outcomes for millions of patients. Thank you for the great feature! “[At Pangea]...we aim to blend the agility and speed of a tech startup with the rigorous, science-driven approach of a biotech company. This allows us to innovate rapidly while maintaining high scientific standards in our discovery pipeline, pushing the boundaries to develop groundbreaking therapies.” Here is the full article: https://lnkd.in/eTbviRVK #PangeaBio #DrugDiscovery #FemaleFounders #Startup #AI #DrugDevelopment #MedicinalPlants

Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Startup Ecosystem 1.5Q 2024 Through an extensive search and review of publicly available information, 172 startups were selected for detailed analysis based on specific criteria such as business profile, product offerings, technological innovations (including patents), investment and fundraising status, key leadership, revenue, market presence, clinical trials, and reimbursement strategies. I. Digital Therapeutics Startups Landscape Digital Therapeutics Startups in Mental Health Landscape Digital Therapeutics (DTx) startups focusing on mental health are utilizing AI and XR technologies to develop innovative solutions for conditions like anxiety, depression, PTSD, and autism. XR technologies are particularly prominent, creating immersive environments for therapy, which improve engagement and effectiveness of treatments. Digital Therapeutics Startups in Cognitive, Neurological, and Behavioral Health Landscape This sector includes startups addressing developmental disorders (such as ADHD and ASD), neurological health (including stroke recovery and neurodegenerative diseases), cognitive health, maladaptive behaviors, substance use disorders, and sleep disorders. These startups leverage digital platforms and advanced technologies to offer personalized and adaptive treatments that enhance patient outcomes and streamline clinical workflows. Digital Therapeutics Startups in DTx for Chronic Conditions and Other Health Conditions Landscape DTx startups targeting chronic conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and pain management are using AI to provide real-time, data-driven treatment adjustments. Additionally, startups focusing on cancer care, eye health, gastrointestinal health, rehabilitation, and respiratory health are developing innovative solutions to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs. II. DTx Product Landscape Mapping the DTx product landscape involves cataloging products by their manufacturer, the conditions they target, their regulatory clearance status, and their reimbursement status. This detailed mapping provides insights into the market readiness and commercial potential of various DTx products. III. Fund-Raised Global Digital Therapeutics (DTx) Startups - Investors Mapping Out of the 172 startups analyzed, 94 have collectively raised $6.859 billion from global investors. IV. Global DTx Innovation (Patent) Landscape 1.5Q 2024 The analysis of the global DTx innovation landscape involves mapping products to related patents owners and assessing the innovation status based on patent filings. This helps in identifying the key players in the market and understanding the technological advancements driving the DTx sector. The patent landscape provides insights into the competitive edge and intellectual property strategies of various startups, highlighting their potential for future growth and market impact. #digitaltherapeutics #digitalhealth #ecosystem #startups #fundraising #patent

🔬💼 Can scientists make it as CEOs? It's one of the most challenging questions in the Biotech startup ecosystem, stirring endless debate. Last Friday, I had the privilege of exploring this topic alongside inspiring CEO colleagues like Marina Simian from Oncoliq and Nicolas Kirchuk from @Biomarkers. With the amazing views of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge 🇺🇲, I shared insights from my CEO journey at Ayuvant with investors, founders, and fellow scientists, making for an enriching exchange. A CEO with a scientific background, especially one who's the brain behind the tech, can be a game-changer. It can understand the technology's limits and define clear and realistic development paths to maximize the impact. Plus, it’s data-driven decision-making is crucial for steering the business wisely. Transitioning from scientist to CEO entails a profound and fast mental shift. In academia, the focus is often around perfectionism in scientific details, publishing papers, and navigating the slow grant application processes. Moreover, complex products that are hard to scale-up are frequently rewarded by academia. Some scientist CEOs mistakenly view starting a company as merely an instrument for conducting just more research, with increased resources from private investments. However, the reality in the startup world is vastly different. It's about understanding the bigger picture of drug development, mastering soft skills for team building, fundraising, and forging successful partnerships—all at lightning speed. Once you're in the adventure of company-building, science is just one piece of the puzzle, alongside IP, finances, legal, regulatory affairs, HR, production, communication, and partnerships. The sense of urgency is mandatory. When co-founding Ayuvant with Gert Storm, we recognised the formidable challenge of developing a universal immunotherapy for cancer in a tightly regulated industry. Collaboration became our priority. We focused on assembling a top-tier team with expertise in clinical trials, pharma partnerships, and commercialization. I am very grateful that industry leaders like Rosana Felice and Isro Gloger—whom I learned from during my time at GSK— have joined Ayuvant. Together, our team's impact is evident: from a small proof of concept just a year ago to plans for clinical trials by early 2026. It's incredible how our combined experience can propel drug development forward, bringing much-needed treatments to patients faster than ever. 🚀 I'd like to extend my gratitude to Consuelo Valverde from Endurance28, Francisco Buchara from SF500, and Guillermo Repizo, PhD from Latinx Tech Group for organizing this fantastic event.

Accelerating pharma R&D transformation and patient-centric healthcare: Debiopharm - a strong partner of the Venture Leaders Biotech program - sets up a seed fund with USD 150 million in assets to support startups. Discover: https://lnkd.in/eeQ-QBTf Building on its history of investing in 25 companies since 2006, with a focus on digital health since 2017, Debiopharm aims to revolutionize pharmaceutical R&D and drive digital innovation in cancer care. The new Innovation Fund is headed by Marc Cikes. The fund has already started its activity with two Seed investments, with two more to be announced soon. The first two Seed investments include Tune Insight, a Swiss-based startup offering a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform enabling the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models through secure federated learning - as well as Venture Leaders, Venture Kick and TOP 100 winner - and neuroute, a UK-based startup that develops a no-code AI clinical development platform streamlining critical processes of clinical trials, such as study design and site selection. Venturelab wishes best of success to our partners at Debiopharm (Marc Cikes, Bertrand Ducrey, Thierry Mauvernay, Lambert Potin) and all Debiopharm Investment SA portfolio companies! #SwissStartups #VLeadersBiotech

Zcube - Zambon Research Venture announces the fifth edition of Open Accelerator, the international acceleration program for high-potential innovative startups in the field of life sciences. Starting this year, the program will focus on the femtech sector and will feature a new format. The initiative, one of the first internationally in terms of focus and invested capital, invites startups and entrepreneurial ideas aimed at developing products and services to address major medical needs and improve women's health and well-being. The targeted therapeutic areas include gynecology, cardiovascular health, oncology, sexual health, endocrinology, gastroenterology, nutrition, autoimmune disorders, mental health, neurology, reproductive health, and more. The Call for application are open until June 16. At the end of the selection process, up to 5 startups will be identified to receive an investment of €100,000 each, through a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) agreement and will have access to a training and mentoring program delivered by experts in the fields of investments, business development, venture capital, intellectual property, regulatory affairs, and market access. Startups with the highest potential will also have the opportunity to build a partnership with the Zambon group, accelerating their market access phase and commercial positioning on a global scale. Meet the leaders of this program on our LinkedIn live interview. Learn about the program and get insights into making your application stand out to access this incredible opportunity! Make sure you join via the link in the comments!

Exciting times for innovation and growth! 💼🚀 The second week of the year brought some exciting developments in the funding space! Here's the rundown: 1️⃣ Quantinuum, $300M, Quantum: Quantum computing gains momentum with a $300 million equity raise led by JPMorgan Chase. Investors are bullish on the potential of quantum technology, propelling Quantinuum's pre-money valuation to $5 billion. 2️⃣ Flexport, $260M, Logistics: Logistics giant Flexport secures $260 million in funding from Shopify, marking a significant event for the San Francisco-based startup. Flexport continues to make headlines with strategic partnerships and acquisitions, emphasizing its influence in the logistics space. 3️⃣ (Tied) Cleveland Diagnostics, $75M, Biotech: Biotech firm Cleveland Diagnostics secures $75 million, led by Novo Holdings. The funds will support the development and expansion of its innovative IsoPSA prostate cancer test. 3️⃣ (Tied) Comanche Biopharma, $75M, Biotech: Concord-based Comanche Biopharma secures $75 million in a Series B round led by New Enterprise Associates. The startup focuses on therapies for preeclampsia, addressing a serious pregnancy complication affecting millions globally. 3️⃣ (Tied) DailyPay, $75M, Fintech: DailyPay raises $175 million, offering a solution to the payday waiting game. The fintech company partners with employers, allowing employees to access and manage their pay in real time. 3️⃣ (Tied) Tr1X, $75M, Biotech: San Diego's Tr1X emerges from stealth mode with a $75 million Series A led by The Column Group. The biotech company is dedicated to developing therapies for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. 7️⃣ Digital Onboarding, $58M, SaaS: Boston-based Digital Onboarding secures $58 million in an investment round led by Volition Capital. The customer relations platform for financial services continues to enhance its offerings. 8️⃣ Forta, $55M, Healthcare: AI-driven healthcare platform Forta raises $55 million in a Series A led by Insight Partners. The San Francisco-based startup focuses on improving access to quality care. 9️⃣ Ratio Therapeutics, $50M, Biotech: Boston's Ratio Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical startup developing radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment and monitoring, secures $50 million in a Series B round. 🔟 SmartLabs, $48M, Biotech: Boston-based SmartLabs, providing laboratory infrastructure and resourcing as-a-service, locks in a $48 million Series C from various investors, including Conversion Venture Capital. #PulseRecruitment #Recruitment #Tech #TechRecruitment #ITRecruitment #TechNews

💶 Debiopharm has recently announced the set-up of an innovation fund aiming to support 15 seed-stage start-ups each year - fantastic news for vendors entering the precision medicine market! Our analyses have certainly shown that funding across digital pathology has started to slow and focus more on later-stage rounds.    🔎 The first 2 start-ups to benefit are Tune Insight and Neurote: - Tune insight enables the training of AI models through their privacy-preserving data collaboration platform (something essential when utilising clinical data as real-world data!). Platforms such as that offered by tune insight make it more likely for AI models to be validated and therefore deployed for clinical use. - Neroute's solution is an AI powered platform which aids in clinical trial design. A recent case study of theirs which took my interest was a clinical trial by Modus to use the immunoglycan, Sevuparin in sepsis treatment. In this case, neroute's platform allowed increased efficiency of the progression of this clinical trail by the incorporation of real-world data to select country and site specific locations.   (https://lnkd.in/e-ePsY_z)                  💡 The incorporation of real-world data into clinical trials is a hot-topic at the moment and has potential to maximise the efficiency of studies and make drug approval more likely - but what are your thoughts? For more information on Debiopharm's Innovation Fund, see the link below. #funding #realworlddata #digitalhealth #AI #clinicaltrials #startup #digitalpathology #pharma #pathology #healthcare #technology https://lnkd.in/ecYAhTVJ

🚀 MedTech Startups: Who's Attractive Now? 🚀   📝 Editorial   "Sorry, we don't finance IVD companies." That’s a tune I heard from Venture Capital firms and Business Angels over the past two years. However, with the rise of personalized medicine and the post-COVID era, IVD companies, once overlooked, are now exceptionally attractive.   🔙 Let's Rewind - How It Used to Be   According to a study published in 2016 by the World Health Organization, the IVD industry didn't have the most enticing profile: - It represented just around 10% of the total MedTech market value – which itself is dwarfed by the pharma market. - A growth expected to be in the mid-single digits - Highly fragmented market, with only a few major players. - Reimbursement challenges and a lack of product differentiation kept profit margins relatively low, typically 45% to 55%.   But fast forward to the last 2-3 years, and the landscape has transformed significantly.   🎯 Factor 1: The Precision Medicine Surge   Precision (or personalized) medicine has taken center stage. The Economist recognized the trend in 2020, noting that treatments are increasingly tailored to individual genetic and environmental factors. In this arena, molecular diagnostics, a subset of IVD, is leading the charge. It offers highly differentiated products with strong healthcare economics, improving treatment outcomes and resource efficiencies.   💥 Factor 2: The Financial Impact of COVID   COVID-19 was a game-changer for the IVD industry. The unprecedented demand for testing led to remarkable financial performance for industry leaders: - Roche Diagnostics saw sales growth soar from +2.9% in 2019 to +29.5% in 2021, with an improved profit margin. - Siemens Diagnostics and Thermo Fisher experienced similar growth.   However, the COVID frenzy is subsiding, and IVD companies are faced with slowing sales and potential margin reduction. They find themselves with a surplus of cash.    🛍️ It's Shopping Time !   Imagine you're an executive at an IVD company. Your sales are slowing down, profit margins are under pressure, and you're sitting on a pile of cash. Meanwhile, an enticing market is developing, driven by a wave of innovative startups that need support to bring their solutions to market. What would you do? It's probably shopping time!   So, who's attractive now in the world of MedTech startups?   Read the entire editorial : https://lnkd.in/eC-wnhk6   #MedTech #IVD #PrecisionMedicine  #LaFrenchCare

#StartupSpotlight: Ceribell │ Point-of-Care EEG With increased demand for clinically validated #Digitalhealth solutions, I am starting a new opinion series on ventures with recent market updates. On September 6th, ICU-bedside monitoring company Ceribell │ Point-of-Care EEG has announced its clearance of ClarityPro, a bedside software to diagnose electrographic status epilepticus, better known as Electrographic seizures. The approval with the 510(k) number K232052 has already granted on the 8th of August of last month. Ceribell was founded in 2014 and has since then attracted more than $385m of funding, most recent a $50M injection led by Ally Bridge Group, a PE-firm that is also invested in other significant Digital Health players, including BenevolentAI, Elligo Health Research and RefleXion Medical and many more. With an Evidence Score of 89.9% which is based on the scientific and clinical impact of a venture, Ceribell has proven strong clinical strength. Till date, Ceribell's devices and software have been used across close to 20 publications, completed 1 clinical trial with another one currently running. On top Ceribell has received 10 patents to secure their IP. Find Ceribell also on HealthTech Alpha: https://lnkd.in/g83ymJpv ______ Neurology is a highly targeted therapeutic area in Digital Health. 730 Digital Health ventures are currently privately held and actively running. Over the past 5 years more than $13.8 billion of venture capital funding has been invested and more 2,275 partnerships been sealed. The Digital Health Remote Devices market for Neurology with proven clinical impact is significantly smaller. Of the 730 ventures active in Neurology, only 54 have proven clinical strength through clinical trials, scientific publications or regulatory approvals. Using our new Ecosystem Flashcard feature in HealthTech Alpha, I created this short presentation in less than a minute to showcases key insights into the "Digital Health Remote Devices Market for Neurology with Clinical Strength". Click, share and download if you like the presentation! Also let me know if you are interested in another fascinating area in Digital Health.

Lindus Health, a UK clinical trials startup backed by Peter Thiel, raises $18M Clinical trials are the cornerstone of modern medical research, serving the evidence required to prove (or disprove) the safety and efficacy of a new treatment. However, clinical trials are also costly, resource-intensive endeavors that can take many years to reach a stage where a drug or device is deemed ready for a wide-scale rollout. This is something that Lindus Health is setting out to address, touting itself as a “next-gen contract research organization” (CRO) that makes it faster and easier to run clinical trials. The U.K. startup today announced it has raised $18 million in a Series A round of funding from big-name backers including Spotify investor Creandum, and billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel. Founded out of London in 2021, Lindus was born from observations and frustrations encountered directly by two of the company’s founders. A former venture capitalist at Omers Ventures, Meri Beckwith had direct knowledge of clinical trials through his work with healthtech startups. “I worked for a bit in venture capital, and I came across companies running their own clinical trials,” Beckwith explained to TechCrunch. “Everyone was universally frustrated with the outcomes. Everyone just constantly complained about how long clinical trials took, how the outcomes were always bad, and there were always mistakes. So as an investor, I thought this is a really interesting area for investment.” As the global pandemic took hold in 2020, Beckwith also volunteered to participate in several COVID vaccine studies, giving him first-hand insights into the clinical trial process. “I was just completely shocked to see how unbelievably dysfunctional that was,” Beckwith added. “And this was one of the really big, well-funded phase-three trials. I remember having to download Internet Explorer to even sign up for the clinical trial. The website the CRO had built was on WordPress, and it didn’t have an SSL certificate. And on the clinical trial side, they were just tons of ridiculous errors. So that was a real eye-opener.” Michael Young, one of Lindus’s two other founders, formerly served as special adviser at Downing Street, assisting the Prime Minister and U.K. Government on myriad issues across the life sciences sphere. While he was involved in a lot of work around health and biotech, Young said that much of the thinking was focused on drug approvals and NHS rollout, rather than “that bit in the middle” — that is, how the clinical trials are actually conducted. https://lnkd.in/dp_Jb2ZR