• PipelineRx

  Participated · Equity · Dec 2014

  PipelineRx is a San Francisco-based medication management services and platform company focused on clinical telepharmacy. Led by CEO Brian Roberts, the company provides technology-enabled telepharmacy solutions to acute and specialty hospitals. Its offering combines an integrated, private, cloud-based technology platform, an optimized distributed telepharmacist network and a team of hospital-trained, licensed clinical telepharmacists. PipelineRx currently services over 200 hospitals. The company raised $9.1M in funding and will use the investment to strengthen its technology offerings. PipelineRX develops telepharmacy services that let pharmacists remotely verify and fill hospital prescriptions, addressing pharmacist shortages in rural areas. The company routes pharmacists in locations such as San Francisco to provide coverage for distant hospitals, an approach inspired by teleradiology. It is aiming to carve a niche in rural healthcare to reduce medication errors and staff burnout where on-site pharmacy coverage is limited. PipelineRX plans to build an analytics platform to capture geographic prescription patterns, interventions, safety measures, and dosage data. Financially, the company was founded in 2010 and is based in San Francisco; the California Healthcare Foundation—an initial investor in 2012—has provided another (undisclosed) investment, and last year PipelineRX raised $5 million from AMN Healthcare Services. Pipeline RX provides telepharmacy services and a configurable SaaS telepharmacy platform that lets remote pharmacists monitor and verify inpatient prescriptions over a HIPAA-compliant network. The company combines a staffing/outsourcing model with telemedicine technology to cover labor shortages, reduce onsite headcount, and offer variable-cost staffing to hospitals. Pipeline RX targets rural and public hospitals initially and has expanded interest from larger health systems; it is beginning to offer a customizable SaaS approach for bigger systems. The company says its average medication turnaround time is seven minutes versus an industry standard of 20 minutes and reports labor-cost savings ranging from 30–70% depending on the hospital. Pipeline RX currently has about 150 employees (roughly 120 telepharmacists), operates in 27 states, has had its pharmacists used by more than 200 hospitals, and more than 30 hospitals have adopted its SaaS product. Leadership plans include building an analytics platform to capture prescribing and intervention data as a third phase of the business.

• Nitric Bio

  Participated · Equity · Nov 2011

  Nitric BioTheraputics is a biopharmaceutical and medical device company developing iontophoresis-based drug-delivery therapies for onychomycosis (nail fungus) and nongenital warts. The company is conducting Phase 2 clinical trials of its iontophoresis platform and is raising $1 million to fund those trials, according to CEO Frank McCaney. Iontophoresis uses electric currents to improve delivery through skin and nails, enabling high concentrations in a single dose and a pain-free application, the company says. Nitric BioTherapeutics is also developing a nitric oxide therapy to treat tinea pedis (fungal infections between digits) and skin and soft tissue infections, and notes that achieving correct nitric oxide concentrations is a significant challenge. The company filed a Form D with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission dated Nov. 29 related to the current fundraising. Backers include New Spring Ventures, Quaker BioVentures and CareFusion (a Cardinal Health spinoff). The company is based in Bristol, Pennsylvania and last year raised $1.7 million of an ongoing round projected to reach $20 million; it had previously raised $1.7 million in 2009. Nitric BioTherapeutics is developing treatments for onychomycosis (nail fungal infections) and athlete’s foot, using an iontophoresis delivery platform and topical nitric oxide gas–based therapies. The company plans to use the new capital to fund a Phase 2 onychomycosis trial, which CEO Frank McCaney expected to complete by mid‑2011. An athlete’s foot program recently completed Phase 2 testing. Nitric Bio purchased the related IP last year from Transport Pharmaceuticals. The company has six full‑time employees. To date the company has raised about $16 million since 2006.

No current team members are available.