PharmStars Announces 2021 Accelerator Graduates

12 digital health startups have successfully completed PharmStars’ inaugural 10-week pharma-focused accelerator program.

Boston, Massachusetts – PharmStars^TM, a pharma-focused accelerator for digital health startups, is delighted to announce the graduation of 12 startups from its fall 2021 inaugural program. The graduates successfully completed a 10-week accelerator program, which culminated at the Showcase Event on November 17-19 in Boston.

The Showcase Event brought together the participating startups and PharmStars’ innovation-minded pharma members. PharmStars’ six members include Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, Sumitovant Biopharma, and others.

PharmStars focuses on bridging the “pharma-startup gap” by helping pharma and startups overcome partnership barriers. PharmStars’ unique PharmaU^TM program provides education and mentorship that helps startups and pharma partner more effectively.

The first cohort was selected in September 2021 following a competitive application process. Each startup offers a novel digital health solution related to the theme “Innovations in Clinical Trials.” Their products represent a diverse array of digital health solutions, including digital biomarkers, patient engagement tools, clinical trial recruitment tools, novel drug delivery mechanisms, real-world evidence (RWE) collection capabilities, and data analysis tools.

At the Showcase Event, startups pitched pharma companies on their solutions and engaged with pharma representatives in one-on-one meetings. Participating startups said that the Showcase Event was extremely successful and positive. “Not just one, but all of our meetings over the past two days have been the most productive of any meetings in the five-year history of our company,” said the CEO of one of the startups.  

The CEO of another participating startup said, “PharmStars is truly a game changer for the industry and is helping accelerate the digital transformation of pharmaceutical companies. We are proud to be part of the first-ever PharmStars cohort.”

The following 12 digital health startups have successfully completed the PharmStars accelerator:

• Droice Labs (New York, NY): Data harmonization and real-world evidence generation from electronic medical records and other unstructured data sources.
• EVOCAL Health (Hamburg, Germany): Vocal biomarker platform for continuous data capture and monitoring of patients with respiratory and cardiovascular disease.
• Liyfe (New York, NY): AI-based digital nurse chatbot for patient engagement and capture of RWE in oncology and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
• Longenesis (Riga, Latvia): Clinical trial participant identification and engagement platform for efficient trial preparation and enrollment.
• Neucruit (London, England): Leveraging social media platforms to recruit clinical trial participants.
• Nori Health (Amsterdam, Netherlands): Digital therapy app for management of, and capture of real-world evidence from, patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
• nQ Medical (Cambridge, MA): Passive, personal device-based digital biomarker for cognitive and motor disorders.
• Prism Analytic Technologies (Cambridge, MA): Data analytics and visualization platform for selection and optimization of clinical trial endpoints and trial design components for any disease indication.
• Seascape Clinical (Redwood City, CA): Clinical operations platform that eliminates repetitive manual tasks and context switching, enabling faster trial performance insights and more efficient team collaboration.
• SmartTab (Denver, CO): Novel ingestible drug delivery platform for targeted, oral delivery of biologics and other medications.
• bio (San Francisco, CA): Data mesh platform to harmonize siloed data sources with an analytics layer, enabling data-driven decision-making in drug development.
• The Clinician (Auckland, New Zealand): Bi-directional patient communication and engagement platform to improve the effectiveness of decentralized clinical trials.

In 2022, PharmStars will accept two new cohorts, each with a unique theme that will be announced shortly. For digital health startups interested in participating, information on 2022 cohort dates, deadlines, and themes, as well as the application form, will be available soon on the PharmStars website.

PharmStars 2022 membership is now open to a limited number of pharma and biotech companies.

About PharmStars 

PharmStars^TM is the first and only member-based, pharma-focused accelerator for digital health startups. Through our extensive expertise across pharma, startups, digital health, and innovation, we understand the challenges that pharma and startups face when seeking to collaborate. Our PharmaU^TM program supports digital health startups and our pharma members in “bridging the gap,” leading to greater success and faster adoption of “beyond the molecule” solutions for patients. 

Read the full press release from PharmStars here.