Puretech digital health venture raises $55m
LSE-listed healthcare venture firm Puretech Health (PRTC)’s digital health offshoot, Akili Interactive, has raised $55m in a series C financing. The move comes ahead of its planned FDA filing for a tablet-based video game for the treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This product, AKL-T01, would – if approved – become one of the first digital healthcare products of any type and the first specifically for the treatment for children and adolescents with ADHD.
The financing was led by Temasek, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and the corporate venture arms of Amgen and Merck KgaA as well as institutional investors were included the syndicate. Puretech did not itself participate in the fundraising and will see its ownership position fall from 54% to 40.3% on a fully diluted basis as a result. Among the new investors were Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based manager of various investment trusts including Edinburgh Worldwide (EWI) and Scottish Mortgage (SMT). Baillie Gifford is notable among the non-healthcare sector managers for having exposure to biotech and now, possibly digital health companies in their trusts.
In December 2017, Akili reported positive top-line results from a randomised controlled pivotal study of AKL-T01. This study showed a statistically significant improvement compared to an active control (p=0.006) on the predefined primary endpoint, a composite score from the Test of Variables of Attention, an objective measure of sustained attention and inhibitory control.
Akili is developing a pipeline of digital health products designed to treat cognitive deficiency and/or improve symptoms associated with various neurological and psychiatric conditions including cognition in major depressive disorder, autism spectrum disorder, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and neuroinflammatory diseases.
Puretech digital health venture raises $55m