At MedCity INVEST, our annual conference at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Chicago scheduled for March 28-30, startups will take center stage once again in our startup pitch contest Pitch Perfect. This year, the contest will include four tracks: care coordination and value-based care; remote patient monitoring and smart devices; diagnostics 2.0 and pharmatech.
The finalists for the pharmatech track have been selected. They include digital therapeutic applications for gastrointestinal conditions, digital tools for breast cancer patients, improving physician-patient communication and more.
They will present to a group of investors who will then ask them questions, evaluating them on criteria:
- Completeness of overall plan
- Business idea
- Market opportunity
- Revenue model
- Founder(s) experience
Judges for the track include:
- Jessica Federer, Partner, Boston Millennia Partners
- Jeff Weness, Head of Digital Opportunities and Business Intelligence, Otsuka Pharmaceutical Companies (U.S.)
- Blake Wu, Partner, NEA
To view the agenda, click here.
So who made the short list?
Athelo Health is a biomarker based virtual coaching platform for breast cancer patients. By providing real time guidance for patients and healthcare navigation, Athelo improves outcomes while decreasing care costs. Athelo is there for patients during their entire treatment journey, providing continuous behavioral guidance based on biometrics including heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, activity and temperature. Unlike current solutions, which tend to be indication agnostic, Athelo is built for breast cancer patients and founded on the latest medical research. The team is founded by industry experts with over 30 years of clinical development, commercial strategy, and engineering expertise.
metaMe Health develops FDA-cleared Prescription Digital Therapeutics for the treatment of gastrointestinal conditions. Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDTs) are software applications that deliver evidence-based therapeutic interventions to patients to prevent or treat a medical disorder or disease. PDTs are developed under the same rigorous conditions as pharmaceuticals and are meant to be used like drugs, complete with clinical trials, FDA clearance and available only with a physician’s prescription. The lead product is Regulora®, the first FDA-authorized treatment of any kind specifically for abdominal pain associated with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in adults. Regulora® is a Prescription Digital Therapeutic that is self-administered through an Apple or Android smartphone. Abdominal pain is the primary symptom of all IBS subtypes, and is the number one reason patients seek treatment for their IBS.
OneFul is the one and only source for personalized combination therapies, made at high quality with advanced automation, many combinations as affordable as $1.00 a day. Through an e-pharmacy portal, OneFul can receive a doctor’s prescription or connect patients to qualified doctors in their network with the latest tools to formulate the right drugs at the right doses.
Sensal Health in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was founded by a team of pharmacists dedicated to helping patients dealing with challenging and often debilitating skin ailments. It is piloting the world’s only platform dedicated to monitoring patient adherence to dermatological medication therapies including topical and oral dosage forms. Its solutions including a suite of patented electronic monitoring devices, apps, and analytics provide unmatched insight into patient adherence to medications. The customers we serve include pharmaceutical manufacturers, clinical trial organizations, clinicians, and pharmacy systems. The team of seasoned pharmacists, technology entrepreneurs, and behavioral health/data science experts are augmented with a close network of technology partners. Its advisers are superstars in their respective fields. Three years forward, we are initiating pilots with major pharma brands, extending its technology pipeline, and validating analytics. The next phase will continue the momentum into steady stage commercialisation to bring its vision to fruition.
Tell Health is creating an online community that brings doctors and patients closer together. The goal is to allow freer communication, better record-keeping, and a sense of empowerment. Tell Health is a purely medical space for the healers and their patients to share information. Bringing patients and health professionals closer together. The company helps nurture deeper relationships between patients and physicians by creating a sense of connection we couldn’t imagine just a few years ago.
Photo: AdrianHillman, Getty Images
