Bayer picks digital firms for open innovation support

A New York company designing a non-invasive endometriosis test, and a start-up from Seoul developing a ring that can diagnose and manage atrial fibrillation, are among the firms picked for Bayer’s digital health accelerator.

Now in its fifth year the German firm’s Grants4Apps programme offered ‘open innovation’ support to four digital health start-ups, each of which moves into premises within Bayer’s Berlin pharma headquarters.

There they will receive €50,000 in financial support and mentoring over the next month or so from senior Bayer managers and external experts to further develop their business models and products.

Reinhard Franzen, head of Bayer Pharmaceuticals Commercial Operations Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “We recognise the huge creative potential outside Bayer and we believe that combining expertise is key to innovation and success.

“The Grants4Apps Accelerator offers new partnership opportunities in the digital health area with its vibrant development in the past years. We are very excited to welcome the four new start-ups for 2017!”

The four firms selected this year were aparito, Oratel Diagnostics, Sky Labs and ThinkSono.

London-based aparito aims to transform the way clinical trials are conducted. It wants to focus on improving the trial experience for patients by collecting objective, meaningful patient data at home and in real-time, using wearables and disease-specific smart phone apps.

Oratel Diagnostics is a New York-based company designing a non-invasive test for endometriosis to decrease healthcare costs and improve the health and well-being of girls and women with the disease. The firm is working on technology that can reduce the time to diagnosis - currently this can take up to seven years.

Seoul’s Sky Labs is developing a ring-type device for accurate diagnosis and customised management of atrial fibrillation that can be worn on the user’s finger and then offer continuous AF detection and personalised care guides.

Finally, ThinkSono from London creates software to diagnose deep vein thrombosis. It uses deep neural networks and portable ultrasound scanners, allowing any healthcare professional to diagnose DVT at the point of care.

Bayer received more than 450 digital health-related applications from 61 countries for its programme this year, with extremely strong bids from the US, Germany, Brazil and UK.

Digital inspiration for pharma on mobile, social media, strategy, best practice, regulations and more