Less than one year since Medisafe commercialized its medication adherence data platform for the pharmaceutical industry, the majority of its paying customers are, perhaps unsurprisingly, pharma companies. But it is also proving its value to payers and providers, thanks in part to its support of interoperability with recent demos of its medication list tool integrating data from Cerner and Epic electronic health record providers and patient portals at HIMSS and the Connected Health conference. That has spurred its expansion not just in the U.S. but in Europe as well.
Medisafe has closed a $14.5 million Series B round to fuel the expansion of its commercial strategy, Jon Michaeli, Medisafe executive vice president for marketing and business development, told MedCity News in a phone interview.
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New European investor Octopus Ventures led the Series B with participation from another new backer, M Ventures — the Amsterdam-based, strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, in Darmstadt, Germany, according to a company news release. Other Medisafe investors that took part in the Series B included Pitango Venture Capital, 7wire ventures, lool Ventures, TriVentures, Qualcomm Ventures and Eyal Gura.
Staff expansion is also a priority with the new funding. The company plans to build out its development team as well as its sales and marketing teams, Michaeli said. “We want to go after customers from which the greatest benefits will come,” said Michaeli.
“We want to go after customers from which the greatest benefits will come,” Michaeli added.
Medisafe has set up a temporary office in London but plans to make that more permanent soon. Until recently the digital health company has been servicing Europe from the U.S. — it is headquartered in Boston. Michaeli emphasized that the U.S. continues to be Medisafe’s most important market.
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Increasing functionality for its platform has been a priority. At HIMSS, the company added a new component for its medication adherence app to alert users of potential drug-to-drug interactions that could cause unexpected side effects or affect the way the medications impact patients, a company announcement noted. The interactions tool also has disclosures for when medications have other lifestyle implications, such as interactions with specific foods or alcohol. The company noted at the time that in the near future, users will be able to look up the known interactions for any medication using the company’s “Interaction Checker” when it becomes available.
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