Bayer announced today that the company has signed collaboration agreements with eleven digital health startups. As part of the program, Bayer will support these startup companies aiming for longer-term collaborations to drive forward the development of specific digital solutions to improve patients' health in the fields of cardiovascular diseases, oncology, ophthalmology, pulmonology, radiology as well as digital therapeutics. The participating healthcare startup companies were selected by Bayer from over 750 applications out of 65 countries based on the strategic fit, development stage of the project, and the assessment of internal experts.
"We received a high number of very mature digital health startup applications and are excited to jointly develop and scale new digital solutions that will help benefit the health of our patients and consumers," said Eugene Borukhovich, Head of Digital Health at Bayer. "Our company's "G4A Digital Health Partnerships" program paves the road for longer-term collaborations through which both parties can bring to market new solutions at the intersection of health and technology," said Dr. Zsuzsanna Varga, who is heading the Bayer G4A Digital Health Partnerships program.
The new program offers two different ways of collaboration with Bayer in the digital health space. Under the terms of the Growth Track, selected early-stage startups receive EUR 75.000 funding for co-creating products or solutions, as well as co-working space at Bayer's Pharmaceuticals division headquarters in Berlin, Germany. Mentoring and coaching by Bayer executives are also part of the program. Under the terms of the Advance Track, startups looking to co-create and execute commercial deals are supported. Here, an initial project funding is followed by incremental milestone-based payments.
Selected Advance Track partners
- Prevencio Med (United States): Blood based tests and algorithms to predict risk of cardiovascular diseases and events. https://www.prevenciomed.com
- Blackford Analysis (United Kingdom): A curated marketplace platform of regulatory-approved medical image analysis apps and AI algorithms for clinical value add. https://www.blackfordanalysis.com
- NeuroTracker (Canada): Cognitive training program designed to improve cognitive and mental performance. https://neurotracker.net
- Carepay (Kenya): Carepay has a mobile health payment platform to send, save, and spend funds for healthcare. https://www.carepay.co.ke
- RelianceHMO (Nigeria): A health insurance company using software, data science, and telemedicine to make health insurance affordable and easier to access. https://www.reliancehmo.com
Selected Growth Track partners
- OKKO Health (United Kingdom): OKKO Health has developed a personalized smartphone software for accurate remote monitoring of visual health outside of ophthalmology clinics. https://okkohealth.com
- Wellthy Theapeutics (India): Wellthy Therapeutics has a clinically validated behavioral intervention platform to help people change their behaviors and reduce their risk of chronic disease. https://wellthytherapeutics.com/about
- Litesprite (USA): Litesprite creates games that combine medical treatment and engagement of mobile gaming to help patients proactively manage chronic health conditions such as stress, anxiety and depression. https://litesprite.com
- Visotec (Germany): At-home hand-held optical coherence tomography (OCT) for monitoring. https://visotec.health
- BioLum Sciences (United States): Developer of the BioSense AMD - a point-of-care, low cost device that works with a proprietary biomarker technology to analyze airway inflammation. https://www.biolumsciences.com
- Upside Health: Upside Health has developed Ouchie, an app for chronic pain management through tools such as congnitive behavioral therapy, community support, pain tracking, education resources and integration with clinicians. https://upside.health
About G4A
Bayer is combining the Group's digital health initiatives under the name G4A (formerly Grants4Apps). In addition to identifying new technologies, business models, and market trends, these initiatives also involve collaborating with start-ups. Since its launch in 2013, Bayer has supported over 150 digital health companies. This has resulted in more than 30 direct collaborations with digital health companies. Bayer now operates G4A in more than 13 countries, developing and promoting collaborative health care projects around the world. https://g4a.health/
About Bayer
Bayer is a global enterprise with core competencies in the life science fields of health care and nutrition. Its products and services are designed to benefit people by supporting efforts to overcome the major challenges presented by a growing and aging global population. At the same time, the Group aims to increase its earning power and create value through innovation and growth. Bayer is committed to the principles of sustainable development, and the Bayer brand stands for trust, reliability and quality throughout the world. In fiscal 2018, the Group employed around 117,000 people and had sales of 39.6 billion euros. Capital expenditures amounted to 2.6 billion euros, R&D expenses to 5.2 billion euros.