Digital health news, funding roundup in the prior week; February 28, 2022

WHO creates global mRNA training center; DOJ sues UnitedHealth over Change Healthcare acquisition

Top Health News

• FemTec Health unveiled a new direct-to-consumer subscription service called Awesome Woman, with initial focus areas including vaginal and urinary health, wellness and prevention, reproductive health, hormone balance, beauty, and sexual wellness.  
• Techstars announced the launch of the new Techstars Physical Health Fort Worth Accelerator, which will support and fund early-stage startups building new technologies, treatments, and therapies in the physical health space in areas such as rehabilitation, physical therapy, performance, and exercise.
• The Department of Justice, together with Attorneys General in Minnesota and New York, filed a civil lawsuit to stop UnitedHealth from acquiring Change Healthcare, a company that focuses on accelerating the transformation of the healthcare system. The suit alleges that the $13 billion acquisition would harm competition in commercial health insurance markets.
• The World Health Organization is creating a global training center to help poorer countries make vaccines, antibodies and cancer treatments using the messenger RNA technology that has successfully been used to make COVID-19 vaccines
• Medtronic announced it is working to provide colorectal cancer screening technologies in low income and underserved communities across the United States through the Medtronic Health Equity Assistance Program for colon cancer screening, with support from Amazon Web Services
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced he is lifting all but 5% of California's coronavirus-related executive order provisions. The remaining provisions include maintaining California's "nation-leading" testing and vaccination programs and protecting hospital and health facility capacity.

M&A

• Physitrack, a global virtual care company, completed its acquisition of Wellnow Group GmbH, a German virtual-first corporate health platform
• Veriheal, a cannabis education and wellness platform, acquired MarijuanaDoctors.com, which provides transparent access to medical marijuana evaluation services
• MRO Corporation, a clinical data acquisition and release platform, acquired MediCopy, a provider of release of information solutions to physician practices and outpatient providers
• MJH Life Sciences, a medical media company, acquired the Cannabis Science Conference, which organizes and hosts bi-annual scientific and medical cannabis events
• Biohaven, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Channel Biosciences, a subsidiary of drug discovery and development company Knopp Biosciences
• WellSky, a global health and community care technology company, acquired TapCloud, a virtual patient engagement technology company

Funding Roundup

• Virtual cardiac care platform Story Health raised $22.6 million
• Mental health medication platform Minded raised $25 million
• Omada Health, a chronic care integrated healthcare provider, raised $192 million
• Clinical Healthcare Analytics, which leverages the EMR to perform real-time analysis at point-of-care, raised $250,000
• Eyebiotech Limited, an ophthalmology biotechnology company, raised $65 million
• MediBuddy, an Indian digital healthcare platform, raised $125 million
• Somatus, a value-based kidney care company, raised $325 million
• FluoretiQ, a developer of rapid tools for detecting and identifying bacteria in patient samples, raised £1.1 million
• Nabta Health, a healthcare platform for women’s healthcare in the Middle East, raised $1.5 million

(Image source: piqsels.com)