Allara raised $10 million in a Series A funding round led by GV. The startup offers membership-based virtual services to treat women’s chronic hormonal conditions, such as PCOS and endometriosis. CEO Rachel Blank — former executive at Ro and investor at General Catalyst — founded the company partly due to the difficulty she experienced arriving at her own PCOS diagnosis.

This year’s HLTH conference brought a bevy of news announcements — from partnerships to new product features to acquisitions and more. In this list, MedCity News compiled short summaries for 11 of the conference’s most notable announcements.

At HLTH 2023, I had dozens of conversations with providers, digital health investors, startup CEOs and other players in the healthcare industry. When I got home, I compiled seven refreshingly honest takes I heard from them while at the conference.

Health tech to support care for seniors and track the progression of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and heart failure were on display at HLTH 2023. The National Institute on Aging also added a startup boot camp leading up to HLTH.

Formed by Baidu founder and CEO Robin Li, BioMap uses artificial intelligence technology to glean insight into proteins to guide biologic drug discovery. The startup is the latest company to join a growing list of Sanofi partners as the pharmaceutical giant continues investing in AI-enabled drug discovery.

The digital health sector’s quarterly investment trends seem to be stabilizing in 2023, according to a new report from Rock Health. The report noted investors are shifting their focus away from pandemic-era categories like telehealth and pharmaceutical R&D catalysts — instead, they’re interested in startups creating products for disease treatment, the improvement of nonclinical workflows and the enablement of value-based care.

Precede Biosciences’ liquid biopsy platform yields insight into the genes and pathways in diseased tissue. Based on Dana-Farber Cancer Institute research, the startup aims to support biopharma drug R&D as it also develops the technology for clinical care applications.

Investment trends will be a big theme at the HLTH event at the Las Vegas Convention Center October 8-11. In the runup to the conference, investors from Bessemer Venture Partners, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, Third Culture Capital and Intuitive Ventures offered their takes on 2023 investments.

San Francisco-based Plenful emerged from stealth on Tuesday. The startup sells a workflow tool that automates manual and administrative workflows for pharmacy technicians. In addition to its launch out of stealth mode, the company also announced that it has closed a $9 million funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and signed contracts with more than 20 customers.

Avalyn Pharma aims to improve treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis with inhalable versions of two older oral drugs and it’s now headed for mid-stage testing backed by a Series C financing. Other recent biotech industry financings raised money for research in cancer, immunology, and rare genetic diseases.

Syntax Bio’s technology platform uses CRISPR to direct stem cells to become a desired cell type in a process that’s more scalable and less expensive than current methods. The startup is raising a Series A round of financing to further demonstrate the potential of its technology.

Magnet Biomedicine builds on decades of molecular glue research from its scientific co-founder, Harvard University Professor Stuart Schreiber. The startup is developing drugs that take these glues beyond the biotech industry’s current focus on targeted protein degradation.

Avalon BioVentures unveiled new portfolio company Arialys Therapeutics. The startup’s lead program, an antibody from Astellas Pharma, is a potential treatment for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (ANRE), a rare autoimmune inflammatory disorder.

The group of 10 startups in the accelerator have ambitions to improve early detection of lung cancer, eliminate contaminated needles, improve remote monitoring and provide new ways to treat head lice, among other goals.

By revealing how tumors interact with immune cells, Noetik aims to identify new targets for new cancer drugs. The startup and its artificial intelligence-driven platform are supported by $14 million in seed financing.

Integral raked in $6.9 million in seed funding in this week. The San Francisco-based startup is developing technology that seeks to speed up the process of exchanging sensitive health data while still maintaining robust privacy protection.

As the value-based care market gets more crowded, startups in this space will have to nail down the fundamentals in order to attract capital from investors, healthcare business expert Paul Campbell said during a virtual conference. He encouraged startups to be crystal clear about what their value proposition is for three main stakeholders — patients, providers and payers.

Luna — an at-home physical therapy provider — released a new study on the efficacy of its post-surgery rehabilitation program. The study, which was conducted by the startup, showed that the Luna Pathways program did a good job of reducing patients’ pain, increasing care plan adherence, and decreasing avoidable hospital readmissions and emergency department visits.

Regard — a startup selling an AI co-pilot that helps clinicians diagnose medical conditions — announced a new partnership to add to its technology’s capabilities. The company is teaming up with OpenAI to release new chatbot functionalities built on OpenAI’s large language model GPT-4.

Rapport Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech that was founded last year, raised $150 million in Series B financing, bringing its total funding to date to $250 million. The company’s platform leverages receptor-associated proteins to create neurology drugs that have more focused activity in the brain, going after disease-driving circuits and cell types.

Genesis Therapeutics recently joined the growing list of AI-powered drug discovery startups receiving venture funding this year. The company closed a $200 million Series B financing round, taking its total funding to date to more than $280 million.

Femtech is the theme for the INVEST Digital Health Pitch Perfect competition in Dallas October 26. Seven startups will share the spotlight and present their approaches to improving women’s healthcare. Register today!

Epic announced that it will integrate Abridge’s clinical documentation tool into its EHR workflow. The startup’s generative AI tool listens to visits and creates a near-instant summary that adheres to physicians’ prototypical note structure.

Biotech startups raised $2.6 billion globally in the second quarter of this year, but that’s down nearly 46% compared to the same period last year, according to a report from Pitchbook. Capital is harder to find, and the report projects an uptick in M&A activity as companies run out of cash.

Suvida Healthcare — a startup providing primary care for Medicare-eligible Hispanic adults — is adopting Elation Health’s primary care-specific technology platform. The platform comprises an EHR, as well as software for patient engagement, telehealth and revenue cycle management. Suvida’s chief medical officer said Elation beat out the competition due to its focus on both primary care and value-based care.

Flagship Pioneering-founded Alltrna is developing tRNA therapies to address genetic diseases driven by truncated versions of proteins. By addressing an aberrant genetic instruction underpinning many diseases, the startup is developing what it describes as a potential “universal solution.”

Daybreak Health — a startup that partners with school districts to provide children with virtual mental health services — recently closed a $13 million Series B funding round. The company has partnered with more than 60 public school districts since it began providing care in 2019.

Chicago-based Rush University System for Health recently struck a partnership with Cadence — the health system is beginning an RPM pilot using the startup’s technology platform and clinicians. Rush will enroll Medicare and Medicaid patients who have one or more of the following chronic conditions: hypertension, congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes.

A new startup named Uptiv Health launched to make infusion care more accessible and enjoyable for patients. The company, which was built at Redesign Health, is launching its flagship infusion center later this month in the Detroit area.

HerMD recently raised $18 million in a Series A-1 funding round. The company offers in-person and virtual women’s healthcare that focuses on menopause and sexual health. It is using its new capital to open more brick-and-mortar women’s health centers across the country.