Jana Care – a pioneering developer of at-home self-administered testing technologies for chronic kidney and heart disease management – recently announced the initial closing of a Series B financing from a syndicate of new and existing venture firms. Along with its ongoing partnerships with global leaders in diagnostic technologies and pharmaceutical development, Jana Care welcomes lead investor IAG Capital Partners.
The company plans to use the funding to expand the development of its quantitative blood testing platform. And the platform is designed to enable self-administered blood tests at home and allows clinicians to review the test results remotely. The platform’s capabilities aim to overcome distance and socioeconomic hurdles that currently hinder the timely detection and monitoring of chronic kidney and heart disease progression.
The pandemic accelerated the adoption of telehealth services, which has benefited the management of acute and chronic conditions. And this trend has highlighted the need for reliable at-home technologies that can provide a more convenient alternative for measuring critical analytes in remote, hard-to-reach settings and address the challenges of adherence to recommended testing guidelines. For the case of chronic kidney disease patients, adherence is just 20%. This is important for populations that are disproportionately impacted by hospital readmissions.
Health-related quality of life is much lower for patients with cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) conditions, a new patient management approach recently defined by the American Heart Association.
KEY QUOTES:
“Building on the strength of our global strategic partnerships, we are proud to expand our investor base in our fight to bridge the access gap for many chronic disease patients – especially in these post-pandemic times.”
- Anh Hoang-Lindsay, Chief Executive Officer of Jana Care
“We are thrilled to support Jana Care and its mission to increase quality of life for patients with chronic illness and are honored to support the management team.”
- Dr. Ehsan Jabbarzadeh, Venture Partner, IAG Capital Partners and new Board of Directors member
“Patients who have multiple metabolic risk factors such as chronic kidney disease, and heart failure should be managed holistically instead of treating each≠≠ risk separately. This is because these diseases are interconnected, and an increased risk for one disease may accelerate the progression of another condition. By treating them together, doctors can improve a patient’s overall health and reduce and predict complications.”
“The availability of an accurate, home-based blood test would provide a means to directly address this goal and is a potential game-changer for the field.”
- Dr. Carolyn Lam, Senior Consultant Cardiologist, National Heart Centre Singapore and Professor, Duke-National University of Singapore
“Unfortunately, the key blood tests needed to risk stratify individuals with CKM conditions, creatinine, potassium or NT-proBNP, are not yet available at-home for layperson use. The availability of this system would simplify or eliminate the barriers associated with adherence to testing and would reduce disparities in care, and support enhanced disease management resulting in reduced hospitalizations and healthcare cost reductions.”
- Dr. James Januzzi, cardiologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Hutter Family Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Senior Cardiometabolic Faculty at Baim Institute for Clinical Research. And Dr. Januzzi serves as the Chief Medical Advisor at Jana Care.
