Ayogo, a Vancouver-based digital health company, has raised $2.5 million in a Series A round to boost sales and marketing for a gaming platform to encourage people with chronic conditions to stay on their care plans.
The funding came from a syndicate of investors consisting of Merck Global Health Innovations along with Excel Venture Management and 7Wire Ventures. Each of the companies will get a board seat: David Stevenson of Merck Global Health Innovations, Caleb Winder of Excel, and Lee Shapiro of 7Wire, according to a statement from Ayogo obtained by MedCity News.
Ayogo’s Empower gaming platform has been adapted for patients dealing with type 2 diabetes, obesity and bariatric surgery prep, according to the company.
Among its active customers are Merck, Kaiser Permanente, Sanofi, Genentech, and AstraZeneca.
Companies like Ayogo are collaborating with pharmaceutical companies and health systems to test and demonstrate the effectiveness of their game platforms not only to improve things like medication adherence but also to give patients a better understanding of their condition, and public health issues like the need for vaccinations. In a white paper published in February, the company walked readers through the benefits of playful design for healthcare.
In the statement, Ayogo CEO and co-founder Michael Ferguson said: “People living with chronic conditions often need to make very difficult changes to their lives, attitudes, routines.To support this herculean effort, they get 6-10 hours per year with their healthcare provider. Our mission is to be there, empowering them for the other 8,750 hours of their lives.”
The company has previously developed a social app promoting peer support for young people with diabetes called Diabesties. It was the idea of College Diabetes Network program director Jo Treitman after she started texting with friends who were also struggling to manage their diabetes as college students. It also developed Monster Mansion, a game to help families of young children with Type 1 Diabetes manage their testing and logging schedule.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Photo credit: Photo from Flickr user phil41dean]
