Digital health startup CARI Health was recently awarded an SBIR Fast Track grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), an agency of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to help it market the world’s first wearable medication monitor. And CARI Health is eligible for up to $2.8 million over three years as project milestones are completed within Phase I and Phase II portions of the grant.
This award funding will support product development and conducting human clinical studies for CARI Health’s wearable remote medication monitoring device. And in the past several years, CARI Health has received funding from the San Diego Angel Conference (SDAC), NuFund Venture Group, Cove Fund, Chemical Angel Fund, Device of Tomorrow Capital, and several individual angel investors. The company also recently received investments from the Cedars Sinai Accelerator and the Rady Venture Fund (UCSD).
CARI Health Founder and CEO Patrik Schmidle originally launched CARI Health following a close family member’s struggle with opioid use disorder. And by participating in programs like the Institute for the Global Entrepreneur MedTech Accelerator at the University of California San Diego, MedTech Innovator (the world’s largest MedTech accelerator), and the Cedars Sinai Accelerator, CARI Health has benefitted from best-in-class mentorship and expert guidance. Plus, it was also selected as one of Connect San Diego’s 2022 Cool Companies and was honored again in 2023. In addition, CARI is part of San Diego-based EvoNexus, which has an average 2% admittance rate.
KEY QUOTES:
“As the national opioid crisis continues to escalate amid growing illicit fentanyl use, the discovery of new and innovative solutions is urgent. Wearable remote monitoring is a convenient and patient-friendly way to demonstrate methadone treatment compliance remotely. Under today’s standard of care, especially in the beginning of methadone treatment, patients have to show up almost daily for clinic visits, which creates a significant barrier to begin and remain in treatment.”
“This NIDA grant will support CARI Health’s product development as we build on the success of our efforts to date. And once our product is ready to be deployed in human studies, the funds will help us conduct those human trials.”
— CARI Health Founder and CEO Patrik Schmidle
