Healthcare Venture Capital Funding Rebound?

InnovationRx is your weekly digest of healthcare information. To get it in your inbox, subscribe right here.

Is there a light-weight on the finish of the tunnel for healthcare startups seeking to increase enterprise capital? That’s what Rock Well being’s half 12 months funding report suggests. It discovered U.S. digital well being startups raised $5.7B throughout 266 offers within the first half of 2024. And, if these tendencies persist, this 12 months may very well be on monitor to satisfy or exceed 2019 and 2023 funding ranges–getting again to “regular” after the pandemic-fueled peak.

This week HLTH hosted a dialogue in New York (moderated by yours really) with insights on the healthtech funding panorama, that includes Laura Sillman of Left Lane Capital, Parth Desai of Flare Capital and Vig Chandramouli of Oak HC/FT. Listed here are some key takeaways:

What’s Sizzling: AI, duh! However how do you separate actuality from hype? For starters, don’t lead your pitch with “we’re an AI firm.” Somewhat, what’s the drawback you are attempting to resolve? Be ready for an extended diligence course of the place traders are centered on “high quality.” For now, the funding get together is in again workplace and workflow functions. Suppose billing, coding and automatic note-taking.

Who’s Paying: In the case of AI functions, startups are competing towards legacy gamers, like Epic Techniques and Oracle Well being (previously Cerner), who’re constructing their very own merchandise. However well being programs aren’t tied to incumbents and are even prepared to double pay if a brand new product can present a 3x return–a mix of income era and cost-savings.

The place’s The Exit: A looming presidential election means market uncertainty. We’ve seen a handful of healthcare IPOs, together with Waystar and Tempus, however who is aware of when the IPO market will open up once more. Your greatest exit choice? Strategic M&A.

With $277 Million In New Funding, This Startup Hopes To Unlock The Secrets and techniques Of Biology

Over the previous twenty years, genome sequencing–unscrambling the constructing blocks of DNA that kind our genetic code–has turn into a vital instrument in drugs. It helped expedite the event Covid-19 vaccines and it’s led to new methods to deal with most cancers. It’s additionally an important aspect of precision drugs–tailoring illness remedy to every affected person’s distinctive biology.

With its DNA sequencing platform Aviti, San Diego-based startup Aspect Biosciences is among the many many gamers on this R&D sandbox. On Thursday, the corporate introduced that it has raised a $277 million collection D funding at a $1.03 billion valuation. It is a well-timed boon for Aspect.

Learn extra right here.

Pipeline & Deal Updates

AI: Regard, which makes use of AI to supply medical doctors with insights based mostly on affected person information, introduced a $61 million series B round led by Oak HC/FT.

Implantable Gadgets: Neuspera Medical, which has developed an implantable system that provides incontinence sufferers higher bladder management, announced a $23 million series D spherical led by Vertex Ventures HC and Treo Ventures.

Most cancers Care: Thyme Care, a startup that helps sufferers navigate most cancers care journeys whereas additionally coming into into value-based cost contracts, has raised $55 million in fairness and $40 million in debt financing.

Most cancers Remedy: Scorpion Therapeutics, which is creating new precision most cancers therapies, raised a $150 million Sequence C spherical co-led by Frazier Life Sciences and Lightspeed Enterprise Companions.

Blood Testing: Truvian Well being, a startup creating a benchtop blood-testing system, has raised $74 million co-led by Wittington Ventures and Nice Level Ventures. The funding will go in the direction of scientific trials as the corporate seeks FDA approval for the system.

Privateness: Freshpaint, a software program startup that bridges the hole between healthcare advertising and affected person privateness, has raised a $30.7 million Sequence B spherical led by Threshold.

VA Scribe Pilot: The Division of Veterans Affairs has chosen Abridge and Microsoft’s Nuance as the 2 winners of its AI tech dash problem, that means the 2 firms will now enter into pilot packages contracts to deploy their automated AI medical scribing software program “for check and analysis in dwell VA environments,” in accordance with federal notice.

This Startup Raised $5.2 Million To Develop Blood Exams For Most cancers

Over 35,000 People are identified with a blood most cancers referred to as a number of myeloma yearly, however medical doctors must depend on invasive and painful decades-old checks like bone marrow biopsies to make the prognosis. Precision oncology firm Predicta Biosciences hopes to vary that by providing sufferers non-invasive, diagnostic checks from a easy blood draw.

Learn extra right here.

Different Healthcare Information

UnitedHealth Group says the entire impression of the cyberattack on its Change Healthcare unit will value the corporate between $2.3 billion and $2.45 billion in 2024.

Elevance Well being’s second quarter income hit $2.3 billion, regardless of the well being insurer’s drop in Medicaid enrollees.

Producers of the blockbuster weight problems and diabetes medication GLP-1 agonists, together with Lilly and Novo Nordisk, are exploring utilizing the medication to deal with different situations starting from sleep apnea to fatty liver illness.

Right here’s an outline of the businesses engaged on competing weight reduction medication, together with Boehringer Ingelheim and Viking Therapeutics.

Pfizer is transferring ahead with a once-daily weight reduction tablet, danuglipron, after getting promising information from an early-stage trial. And shares of Swiss pharma large Roche climbed this week after it reported promising outcomes for an experimental weight reduction tablet.

Girls identified with endometriosis might have a “markedly elevated” threat of creating ovarian most cancers, in accordance with a brand new examine.

Elon Musk stated his brain-computer interface firm Neuralink is getting ready to surgically implant its mind chip in a second affected person.

Throughout Forbes

nside Elon Musk’s Mad Sprint To Construct A Large xAI Supercomputer In Memphis

Inside Fintech’s Latest Unicorn: A Credit score Card Backed By Your House

Right here’s How A lot J.D. Vance Is Price

What Else We’re Studying

The Nation’s 911 System Is on the Brink of Its Own Emergency (KFF Health News)

As GLP-1 sales surge, insulin users fear Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will move on without them (STAT)

This kids’ brain cancer is incurable — but immune therapy holds promise (Nature)