PharmStars digital health accelerator names fall 2023 grads

News
PharmStars Fall 2023 graduation

Eleven new digital health start-ups have graduated from PharmStars’ twice-yearly education and mentoring programme, with the latest crop focusing on digital innovations in therapeutic delivery.

The new fall graduates – selected out of dozens of applicants from 14 countries – each offer a unique digital health solution related to the medication pathway, “from drug development to the patient interface,” according to the accelerator.

The start-ups’ technologies include new medication delivery and dispensing tools, remote patient monitoring, real-world data generation platforms, advanced therapy automation, pricing and data analytics, patient and caregiver engagement platforms, and patient communication and education tools. The winners and technologies are listed below:

  • Ampersand Health - predictive monitoring and behavioural therapeutics for chronic inflammatory diseases;
  • Cellular Vehicles - scalable, ‘last mile’ automation platform for cell and gene therapy (CGT) delivery;
  • Digbi Health - microbiome-driven care, diagnostic, and biomarker platform for chronic illnesses;
  • KEEP Health - biometrically-secured smart medicine cabinet for medication management;
  • Medra - artificial intelligence-enabled robotic automation system for CGT;
  • ModoScript - patient-verifying, vitals-collecting, pill-dispensing locked smart device and remote patient monitoring (RPM) platform;
  • PayRx - data repository and analytics system for high-value therapeutics;
  • Pharmesol - large language model (LLM)-powered patient medication support and engagement platform;
  • STAT Health - in-ear wearable for collection of haemodynamic data;
  • Vaultt - data-driven rare disease patient and caregiver engagement platform; and
  • ZiO Health - hand-held device for real-time monitoring of medication concentration levels at the point-of-care.

The PharmaStars accelerator was set up in 2021 to help bridge the gap between digital health start-ups and potential pharma partners, which can be instrumental in making sure their technologies meet their potential – and help them to navigate the challenges of developing them in the highly regulated healthcare environment.

The programme revolves around PharmU, a 10-week educational and mentoring initiative that culminated in November with a showcase event in Boston, where the start-ups presented their solutions to PharmStars’ pharma members and participated in one-on-one meetings.

“The insights and feedback we received have been instrumental in refining our strategy and product offering to align more closely with the needs of the pharmaceutical industry,” commented Philip Wilkins, co-founder and president of KEEP Health.

PharmStars will begin accepting applications on 2nd January 2024, for its upcoming Spring 2024 cohort. Digital health start-ups interested in participating can find additional details and the application form on the PharmStars website in January.