Acquisition of Debiopharm’s Investment Portfolio Company Kaiku Health Broadens Patient Access to Digital Oncology Intervention

Debiopharm announces successful exit deal for Kaiku Health, a Finnish start-up specializing in digital solutions for improved patient outcomes and experience

Debiopharm, a Swiss biopharmaceutical company, announced today the successful exit and acquisition of their investment portfolio company Kaiku Health, a Helsinki-based digital therapeutics company specializing in improving the quality of life of cancer patients. The acquisition made by the publicly traded, Stockholm-based company Elekta, one of the global market leaders in precision radiation medicine, enables a reach to over 4,000 oncology centers managing thousands of cancer patients worldwide with Elekta’s software suite, extending the company’s digital health offering.

In 2018, Debiopharm became the Series A lead investor in Kaiku Health in order to support the active adoption of their technology by hospitals, clinics, and pharmaceutical companies. The investment decision aligned with Debiopharm’s vision is to invest in start-ups that change the way that patients are treated and the way that drugs are developed. The corporate fund specializes in disruptive digital health investments while actively helping the companies bring their technologies to a clinical reality.

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“It’s really thrilling to see our start-up investment companies grow and move to the next step of reaching more of the patients who can benefit from their innovation,” explained Tanja Dowe, CEO of Debiopharm Innovation Fund SA and former Chairwoman of Kaiku Health. “The growing patient base through Elekta will strengthen Kaiku Health’s capabilities to develop patient-centric and outcome-driven solutions for cancer patients, in some cases in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies. In the era of precision medicine, these outcomes play an important role for the development of pharmaceutical therapies.”

Debiopharm remains an active investor in digital health start-ups around the world. As the chairwoman of the board, Debiopharm Innovation Fund SA CEO, Tanja Dowe provided strategic and practical guidance to sustain and grow the start-up’s network, pharmaceutical know-how and international impact.

Kaiku Health has been particularly implicated in immunooncology, where faster detection of predictive symptoms can lead to improved toxicity management. The platform offers cancer patients the ability to stay better connected to their medical team during and after therapy. This is accomplished via a user-friendly app that captures the experience and symptoms of patients through basic health-related questions. The patient-reported information allows caregivers to assess the effectiveness of treatments promptly, to detect and treat health issues early and to adapt the treatment regimen immediately if necessary and can in addition be used to improve clinical study experience. Research shows that digital monitoring can have a beneficial effect on patient health comparable to that of a new medication, revealing the potential impact of this affordable, easy-to-use technology.

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“Personalized digital health intervention to every cancer patient – this has been our vision from the very beginning. Measuring what matters to patients is paramount for value-based healthcare,” expressed Lauri Sippola, CEO of Kaiku Health. “We are grateful for Debiopharm’s active support in developing our digital therapeutics pipeline as our Series A lead investor in 2018. We are encouraged that through this acquisition by Elekta, that now even more patients can have the possibility to receive more personalized cancer care through Kaiku technology.”

Recently, Kaiku Health’s interventions have also been implemented to support the efficient monitoring of COVID-19 patients, including a specific symptom monitoring module in co-operation with the leading Swiss university hospital group, the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG).

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