DrFirst, a company that offers a range of health technology solutions, recently closed a $50 million equity investment from Sixth Street Growth, a part of global investment firm Sixth Street.
This latest investment, announced Wednesday, brings total funds raised by DrFirst in 2020-21 to $135 million. The company did not disclose its valuation.
Rockville, Maryland-based DrFirst offers a broad suite of solutions, ranging from electronic prescribing to telehealth and care collaboration to price transparency tools, said G. Cameron Deemer, the company’s president, in an email. The solutions are being used by nearly 300,000 healthcare providers and more than 1,400 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.
The company’s overarching goal is to create what it calls a “healthiverse,” that is, a universe where healthcare stakeholders are connected to each other in real-time, Deemer said.
With the new funds, DrFirst plans to expand its product suite to offer customers a wider set of health technology solutions and help establish the “healthiverse.”
The funds provided by Sixth Street Growth represent a follow-on investment. Sixth Street previously invested $35 million in DrFirst.
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.
“Software that improves healthcare workflows has been a long-term theme for our team, and DrFirst stands out as a scaled and differentiated enterprise technology platform providing high-quality, user-friendly technology solutions,” said Michael McGinn, partner and co-head of Sixth Street Growth, in a news release.
Founded by CEO and Chairman James F. Chen in 2000, DrFirst is focused on growth and diversification, which is one of the ways the company sets itself apart from competitors.
“No one offers the breadth of products and services we do, and we have different competitors for different areas of our business,” Deemer said. “What makes us so unique is our focus on adding value that vendor systems can bring to their clients, which include hospitals, health systems, pharmacies and physician practices.”
DrFirst also partners with payers and life sciences organizations, including clinical trial organizations and pharmaceutical companies, he added.
Increasingly, health technology companies are incorporating value-added services into their offerings, looking to provide a comprehensive suite of products. Over the past year, there have been several large transactions in the space, from Teladoc’s $18.5 billion acquisition of digital health company Livongo, to care navigation company Grand Rounds merging with Doctor on Demand.
Photo: Topp_Yimgrimm, Getty Images
