Patients & Patience: It’s Personal
Relentless RoundUp - Summer Edition
Health innovators have been unveiling the layers of possibilities for personalized care since the human genome was first sequenced. Beginning on October 1st, 1990, and completed in April 2003, the Human Genome Project gave us the ability, for the first time, to read nature’s complete genetic blueprint for building a human being. A patient. It took more than a dozen years!
Health investors, we are a patient people. We are innately patient, I believe, because we know that on the other side of discovery, long capital raising cycles, clinical failures, clinical triumph, the relentless pursuit of data insights, and a dedication to optimizing enabling technology for care, there will be improved health outcomes. That is a powerful motivating force.
Healthcare and life science investors – we are here for the long haul. We shall continue hunting for new tech – crushing cycle, frothy cycle, down cycle, up cycle.
PERSONALIZATION
RVF New Tech Investment #1
Personalized, Therapeutic Grade, Supplement Formulas
One of the core tenets of our unique Relentless thesis has always been a commitment to investing in ‘preventative health’ solutions. On some days, it feels like we are on a quest for the holy grail. On other days, we uncover opportunities in our deal flow and are invigorated with possibility.
Activating a preventative health strategy often boils down to management of known health risk factors. And with our aging demographic contributing to an explosive rise of chronic, often reversible diseases, the traditional model of care needs to embrace an integrative, holistic strategy.
Personalized nutrition is proving to be essential to holistic healthcare. So, Relentless has invested in VitaminLab - a personalized healthcare company that leverages actionable health data (blood, DNA, and health history) to deliver truly personalized, evidence-based nutritional supplement formulas.
Clinical evidence supports addressing nutritional deficiencies with supplements to improve mental health and wellbeing through to mitigation of stroke risk. The iterative capabilities of VitaminLab’s proprietary, small batch manufacturing process are cued up to play a key role in precision healthcare.
RVF New Tech Investment #2
Personalized Music Therapy
Relentless added a second new personalized approach to care with an investment in Toronto based LUCID.
At the Relentless Venture Fund, we have been promoting exercise as medicine for years. And now, we are advocating for the benefits of customized ‘Music As Medicine’ for a range of neurocognitive conditions, from depression through to the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms such as agitation and anxiety are common in dementia and are often the most distressing to caregivers and patients themselves. With the lack of disease-modifying treatments and increasing caregiver burnout, there is an urgent need for new approaches to symptom management.
My belief in LUCID is personal. As I watched my own mother’s dementia progress alongside her Parkinson’s Disease, our family witnessed firsthand the profound power of music. In our case, we discovered anecdotally over years the optimal set list that brought her instant calm. Playing ‘How Great Thou Art’, by either Alan Jackson or Ann Murray was THE jackpot track for Mom.
Lucid has confirmed that personalized music delivery can have a measurable, therapeutic benefit to an individuals’ neurocognitive state. They have published clinical evidence in anxiety reduction, a diverse set of pilot commercial partnerships, as well as a pharmaceutical collaboration with JT Pharma to develop a prescription digital therapeutic for Alzheimer’s Disease.
Lucid is taking a leadership position to deliver the power of Music as Medicine to the market.
PORTFOLIO NOTES
BEHAVIORAL ADAPTATION is the way an animal (or an emerging technology company) acts or behaves to either stay alive (i.e., extend its cash runway) or in response to some type of external stimulus (e.g., a bear market), to survive.
Following are a few inspirational portfolio behavioral adaptations and updates from this rather unattractive first half of 2022.
Canary Medical
· Constructed a shadow board of in-house executives to bring fresh ideas and perspective to the formal board of directors.
· Forged ahead with the FDA. On the heels of achieving breakthrough status for the smart knee, Canary was awarded breakthrough status for their smart shoulder device in April and has subsequently filed for breakthrough designation on the hip.
· Shelved the IPO plan yet closed a healthy equity financing to advance a deep and exciting pipeline. Not only has Canary delivered the first smart orthopedic to the world, the company’s recent advances in their spine, aesthetics, trauma, glucose monitoring and heart valve programs will make for some extraordinary RoundUps in the future.
Orpyx Medical
Rather than go to the market at this turbulent time, closed a 7-figure debt financing with an existing investor.
Orpyx also enjoyed a new product launch in June - the Orpyx SI Flex Sensory Insole. The “Flex” is an evolution of the custom, smart Sensory insole and developed in response to customer demand. With Flex, there is no requirement for a doctor’s prescription or custom fitting. The Flex will address a broader variety of preventative health objectives with proactive monitoring of plantar pressure, adherence, step count and temperature data. For team Relentless, we are excited to have yet another preventative health option in the toolkit for remote patient monitoring.
Modality.AI
Modality proactively acquired a company in June 2022, Grey Matter Technologies. As a seed stage company, a bold move. A few key drivers underpinning the acquisition: (1) Securing Ira Shoulson, MD, as Chief Medical Officer; Ira is Grey Matter’s founder as well as a leader in clinical research and founder of both the Parkinson Study Group and the Huntington Study Group, (2) instantly acquiring a Canadian team to add to the California base camp, and (3) the addition of unique capabilities for analyzing patient language.
And in other Modality news, the Modality platform received FDA registration as a Class II SaMD (Software as a Medical Device).
So, what is SaMD? SaMD is software that performs one or more medical functions. In the case of Modality, their virtual agent, Tina, may be purchased for use in health care to analyze speech, facial gestures, and hand movements, providing clinicians a new way to assess neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Software is changing how clinicians practice medicine, how consumers manage their own health, and how patients and providers interact.
A Summer Challenge: Behavior Adaptation
In the March 2020 edition of the RoundUp, at the launch of the stay-at-home directive, I highlighted the importance of checking in on our neighbours and the seniors in our life. As I wrap up another chunk of in person time with my dad, widowed a short nine months ago, I am reminded of the importance of companionship for all of us, but especially the impact of making IN REAL LIFE connections with our seniors and other humans in our life. If you haven’t already, it’s time to change our pandemic habits and behaviors and see people safely again, in person.
Please, as we seek outdoor adventure and travel in the weeks ahead, don’t forget that this pandemic has taken a major toll on many. Loneliness, advancing chronic conditions, persistent long haul Covid symptoms, loss of loved ones are the key takeaways for too many.
I am officially throwing out a summer challenge.
Make a list.
Put down three names of individuals you have lost touch with over the past three years.
Plan to reconnect with them in person before Labour Day.
The loneliest people are not necessarily going to tell you they are lonely. And isn’t the prospect of sharing a car ride in the sunshine , a good old-fashioned walk and talk, or a tea in the garden sound rather awesome?
Wishing everyone a summer filled with adventure, heart fueled connections and a whole bunch of active living!