Hi friends,
This week: Big funding rounds, health policy hot takes and a good news healthtech story.
News Bites 🥪
🚶♂️Brain and spine implants enabled a paralyzed man to climb stairs and walk on rough terrain, study shows - We’re kicking off with a story that’s both super positive and unbelievably cool. Pigeon’s attempts to control things with only the power of thought have so far been unsuccessful, but we’ll keep you up to date in this newsletter.
👑 ElevateBio takes fundraising crown with $401M series D, adds Novo Nordisk to growing army of partners - CGT innovators ElevateBio leap to the top of this year’s biotech raise table. Spare a thought for (now in 2nd place) ReNEgade Therapeutics, who basked in their raise coverage for just one day before ElevateBio stole the spotlight.
🧱 Patient21, a digital healthcare startup with brick-and-mortar clinics, raises $108M to grow beyond Germany - In the same week, Patient21 soars to the top of the 2023 healthtech raise table, with a tool to funnel patients directly to in-person clinics. Digital health aficionados will see parallels with Kry’s latest swing to profitability achieved by combining telehealth and in-person care.
❤️🔥 See the presentations that hot healthcare startups used to raise millions from top VCs - Hopefully we’ll see ElevateBio and Patient21’s decks soon, but until then, why not take some inspiration from these pitch decks that helped healthtechs secure some serious $$$.
🇺🇸 Meet the tiny, wireless sleep apnea diagnostic wearable headed for the US - Phenomenal news for Americans with sleep-apnea. Acurable has got the go-ahead from the FDA and is on its way. The Pigeon version of the device is still only in beta but it has accurately diagnosed us as being a Pigeon, and therefore incapable of having sleep-apnea.*
🇬🇧 Technology can help transform the NHS says Starmer - Pigeon’s been strictly apolitical up until now, but on the strength of this from the red team, weighed against the performance of the blue team to date, we’ve come to the only sensible decision: Pigeon for Prime Minister in 2024.
👨🏫 Health Tech startups show stakeholders how digital solutions can offer ROI - Some might argue that showing ROI is actually quite an important part of the supplier-customer relationship. If you’re one of those people, there’s some surprisingly insightful comments from this expert panel.
🆘 How to close the gender health gap - An excellent article in Wired considers the people, processes and technologies that will need to change to close the gap. Eagle-eyed listeners will spot former Pigeon Pod Guest Dr Michelle Griffin sharing her expert opinion.
What to listen to 🔊
🐦 The Healthtech Pigeon Podcast - Pigeon for PM - Join, James, Jessica and Katherine Church as they take a deep-dive into the week’s healthtech stories.
🔊 The Healthtech Podcast #305 How to build a biotech company that changes everything, with Jack O'Meara, CEO of Ochre Bio - Jack O'Meara, CEO of Ochre Bio, shares the team’s ambitious approach of growing human livers outside the body for testing drug candidates as they aim to replace animal testing and improve the qualification of drugs for human clinical trials.
Events 📅
🇺🇸 Crossing the Atlantic: US & UK digital health - SomX & KHP Ventures
🕑 June 12th 6:30pm-9pm
📍 Governor’s Hall, St Thomas’ Hospital, Westminster, London
🔓 Decoding the Future of Women - Femtech Labs
🕑 June 12, 8am-10pm
📍 Wellcome Collection, Euston Road, London
Use the code ‘SOMX15’ at checkout for an exclusive discount on your ticket.
🥐 HealthTech Breakfast Club - Albion VC
🕑 June 12, 4-10pm
📍 PUBLIC Hall, Westminster, London
🔬Discovery Park Innovation Summit - Discovery Park
🕑 June 22, 9.30am-4.30pm
📍 Discovery Park, Sandwich
Opportunities 🕵️♀️
💳 Marketing Assistant (Events), Digital Health Intelligence - Our friends at Digital Health Intelligence are looking to bolster their marketing team. Love Digital Health? Love events? Why are you still here?
❤️ Executive Assistant - Project Manager, Oxford Heartbeat - Ready to work closely with the CEO on projects for a transformative healthtech company improving surgical decision-making? Hit apply now.
📸 CEO, Photobiotics - NLC, the Healthtech Venture Builder is looking for a CEO to come in and kick off their new venture building clean by design pharmaceuticals.
🌿 Growth Marketing Manager, stem4 - A youth mental health charity with its own app portfolio? You’ll all have to beat Pigeon to this one.
*For more information on the sleep-patterns of the common Pigeon, read this 2008 study, ‘Power Napping’ in Pigeons, from researchers at the Max Planck Institute. You can’t accuse us of not at least attempting to fact-check this newsletter.
Got news, jobs or events you think is worth coo-ing over? Let us know! Email us: news@healthtechpigeon.com
At SomX, we are clinicians, scientists, creatives and communicators dedicated to elevating healthtech and biotech. For our clients, we provide communications strategy, multimedia content marketing, public relations, events and branding/design services. Get in touch to find out how we can support your healthtech company.