MedCitizens

StartUPDATES: New Developments from Healthcare Startups

Check out new developments from Medvantx, Medisafe, Medical Informatics Corp., Journey Biosciences, and GSR Ventures.

Medvantx, a healthcare technology and services company, has launched Medvantx Insights, a fully integrated, non-commercial pharmacy platform. It has also announced executive leadership expansions to further its mission to advance medication and healthcare access to individuals throughout the country, including those who are underinsured or uninsured.

Medvantx Insights merges the company’s decades of experience with advanced technology solutions to leverage its 99.98% prescription order accuracy, expanded deliveries and accessibility. The platform delivers operational, compliance and financial insights to manufacturers through advanced analytics and uses API-based integration across technology platforms for seamless access. Additionally, it ensures flexible prescription management and effortless patient-provider interaction experiences.

Under the leadership of CEO Prasanna Parthasarathy, appointed in May 2022, Medvantx restructured operations to leverage the power of patient assistance programs.

Medvantx collaborates with multiple manufacturers — and is set to deliver more than 2 million prescriptions this year — offering patients pharmaceutical choices at scale. It partners with more than 25 patient assistance programs, including four of the nation’s top 10 pharmaceutical manufacturers to ensure no patient is left behind due to financial barriers. PAPs are designed as a safety net for individuals who cannot afford their medications and are typically funded by manufacturers’ endowed foundations. Covering or reducing the cost of medications for some patients provides resiliency against hardships and is clinically significant by encouraging timely access to therapeutics and adherence to medication regimes. A lack of prescription adherence costs the U.S. more than $528 billion a year due to morbidity and mortality, according to the PAN Foundation.

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Medisafe, a medication management and engagement solution, announced integration of its Care Connecter platform with Salesforce Customer Relationship Management (CRM) — which is an important step for pharma companies in need of better interoperability and tools to support patients.

The integration will allow clinicians to seamlessly manage patient support and HUB services from one central system within their workflow. It will also provide clinicians with detailed information about a patient’s health management journey and strengthen the connection between patients and their support teams/HUB services. You can find the full press release here and below.

To read more, click here.


Medical Informatics Corp. has raised $27 million in financing with a $17 million Series B co-led by Catalio Capital Management, through Catalio’s venture capital strategy, and Intel Capital. New investors TGH Innoventures —Tampa General Hospital’s innovation and venture arm — and Notley, and existing investors DCVC, TMC, and nCourage also participated in the round. Jonathan Blankfein, Principal at Catalio, will join the company’s board of directors, and Dr. Diamantis Xylas, Head of Research at Catalio, will join as a board observer.

To read more, click here.


Journey Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company offering biomarker-based predictive risk screening technologies for diabetes-related complications, has launched its flagship product, NaviDKD.

NaviDKD, a biomarker-based blood test, assesses the risk of kidney disease in people with diabetes before clinical signs or symptoms appear. Along with its proprietary Compass reporting platform, NaviDKD provides actionable insights for preventing and managing kidney complications before they occur.

To read more, click here.


A survey of 50 digital health investors by GSR Ventures has revealed that a measurable return on investment and clinical validation of the technology’s platform will be the greatest indicators of company success in 2023.  ROI was deemed “important” or “very important” to the success of digital health companies by more than 94% of investor respondents, and 79% for clinical evidence and trials.

“Generating a strong ROI has always been paramount for health tech startups and we’re seeing that even more emphasized in the current environment as purchasers prioritize their spending on solutions with the strongest value proposition,” said Dr. Sunny Kumar, a Partner with GSR Ventures. “But we were most excited to see the vast majority of respondents also highly value clinical validation, which we believe is the best signal of patient value and historically has been under-captured in digital health,” he added.

To read more, click here.

Photo: Natalie Mis, Getty Images