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Health Innovation Summit

On January 20, 2012, I was a speaker on the panel "Funding Mechanisms" at the Healthcare Innovation Summit in San Francisco.

The key takeaway are:

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Anne DeGheest | 25 January 2012

Venture Capital Flows to Cost-Effective Health Care Companies

Sarah Varney of KQED interviewed me for the KQED California Report and an upcoming National Public Radio broadcast.
Pleased listen to the audio link after the short local news.

Medicare and some health plans are beginning to withhold payments for medical mishaps, preventable infections, and readmissions. The federal health law also forces them to pay more attention to how much they're spending. Both factors have a direct effect on the kinds of investments that Silicon Valley venture capitalists are betting on. Reporter: Sarah Varney

Anne DeGheest | 07 November 2011

The Dartmouth Staff inteview about HealthTech Capital investment in Pharmasecure

PharmaSecure - an international company founded by two Dartmouth alumni in 2007 that prints unique barcodes on consumer drugs to verify their authenticity - received additional funding this week, bringing its total awarded amount to $3.9 million over the past two months, co-founder and CEO Nathan Sigworth '07 said in an interview with The Dartmouth. PharmaSecure, which is based in Lebanon, N.H., and operates exclusively in India, received the funding through a joint investment from HealthTech Capital, Gray Ghost Ventures, TEEC Angel Fund and Innovation Endeavors, which is run by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, according to a PharmaSecure press release.

The company installs specialized printers that print unique barcodes and serial numbers on drug labels in pharmaceutical factories, Sigworth said. When a consumer purchases a drug, he or she can text the code on the label to PharmaSecure, which then sends a response message notifying the consumer of the drug's authenticity, he said.

There is no charge for consumers to use PharmaSecure's service, Sigworth said. The company profits from the drug manufacturers that purchase and use the printers, he said.

PharmaSecure, which was co-founded by Taylor Thompson '08, plans to use the funding to expand its team and develop new ways to use the data it collects regarding where drugs are used and who purchases them, Sigworth said. He said he hopes this information will allow people to receive better health care in the future.

Anne DeGheest, managing director of HealthTech Capital, said HealthTech was attracted to PharmaSecure because it fit with the fund's aim of investing in companies that use business models to improve health care delivery.

"PharmaSecure really hit our sweet spot," she said. "They found a low-cost and effective way to reach out to the patient so that he could confirm that the drug he had in his hands is correct."  HealthTech invested over $400,000 in PharmaSecure and also encouraged Innovation Endeavors to give a donation to the company, DeGheest said.

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Anne DeGheest | 31 October 2011