Sidekick Health AB stepped into a leading role in the fast-growing digital health space with the closing of a $55 million series B this week and an ever larger number of partners for its gamified app. Designed to help better manage multiple chronic conditions, the digital therapeutic engages users in video game-like activities and rewards positive changes in lifestyle choices while delivering personalized educational components.
Investors have injected $8.4 million into Swedish startup Sigrid Therapeutics AB to speed development of its oral medical device Sipore15. The technology is a tasteless and odorless white powder taken with water to reduce blood sugar levels in people at risk of developing diabetes.
TORONTO – Ontario and British Columbia med-tech companies have received CA$1.4 million (US$1 million) from Ottawa’s Supercluster fund, making a difference they said for patients suffering the long-range effects of COVID-19, chronic disease and undergoing joint replacement surgery.
While many companies are looking to help monitor patients at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, 11 Health and Technologies Inc., of Irvine, Calif., is focused on those with chronic digestive diseases. The company recently said it was offering 12 weeks of free service using the Alfred Smartcare Platform to provide support for people with conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer and ostomies.
Chronic disease patients are facing serious risks both from keeping away from necessary care settings, as well as from potential COVID-19 infection. One in five chronic disease patients was already starting to avoid seeking care in physician’s offices and hospitals, according to a survey that started early last week of a panel of 1,300 chronic disease patients across several indications.
A pair of Israeli health tech companies, Beyond Verbal and Healthymize, plan to merge to form Newton, Mass.-based Vocalis Health. The company will be focused on developing vocal biomarkers, which track voice patterns via phone calls or smart devices to screen for various voice-indicating ailments including chronic respiratory and cardiac conditions, as well as depression. Vocalis has raised a $9 million financing led by Israeli health tech and life science venture firm Amoon to accumulate additional clinical data and enhance its voice database.