BeCare Link was one of eleven digital health start-ups which graduated from PharmStars™ Spring 2022 accelerator program. Selected in March 2022 through a competitive application process, BeCare Link completed a 10-week program which provides education and mentorship to help start-ups partner more effectively with pharmaceutical companies.
Bridging Pharma and Start-ups to Drive Digital Health Adoption
The background and purpose of PharmStars™ underscores the value of its Accelerator program.
PharmStars is an accelerator dedicated to driving digital health adoption in the pharmaceutical industry. Ultimately, the PharmaStars team’s goal is to improve patient outcomes. The company focuses on mentoring startups that use digital technologies to address some challenge or problem facing the pharmaceutical industry.
Its Accelerator program was created to bridge the two worlds of pharmaceutical companies and start-ups. The vastly difficult culture of these potential partners challenges digital innovation. Pharma companies are heavily regulated, historically conservative, and complex. In contrast, start-ups are nimble, lean and focused on growth and rapid scale.
PharmStars’ program brings together pharma companies and start-ups to help bridge that gap. The end goal is to realize the wealth of potential innovative solutions that digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI) offer pharmaceutical companies, and ultimately patient care.
Spring 2002 PharmStars Accelerator Program
Each of PharmStars Accelerator programs center on a particular theme. The Spring 2022 program focused on “Innovations in Neurological Disease.” Each of the participating start-ups offer digital health products which feature innovations in treating neurological disease.
The health solutions presented by the participants span a range of innovations, include digital biomarkers, digital therapeutics, remote patient monitoring, and patient engagement tools. The products, in different ways, seek to improve the diagnosis and care of patients being treated for neurological diseases.
PharmStars Accelerator’s Curriculum
PharmStars provides invaluable information and access to guide start-ups, like BeCare Link, to better understand the needs of prospective pharma partners. The organization’s executive team delivers a comprehensive education through twice weekly classes over 10 weeks. In addition, participating start-ups receive individualized mentorship sessions and introductions to representatives of the digital innovation groups at the PharmStars member companies. The pharma participants include:
- Alexion (a rare disease subsidiary of Astra Zeneca; 2021 revenue of $6.26 billion)
- Boehringer Ingelheim (2021 revenue of $20.6 billion)
- Eli Lilly (2021 revenue of $28.32 billion)
- Novo Nordisk (2021 revenue of $52.36 billion)
- Roche (pharma division: 2021 revenue of $35.04 billion)
- Sumitovant (2021 revenue of $231.0 million)
- Takeda (2021 revenue of $27.4 billion)
Finally, the program culminates with the Showcase Event where all the companies in the cohort present their solutions and participate in one-on-one meeting with PharmStars’ pharma members. For BeCare Link, the recent opportunity to meet with innovation-minded pharma members promises to fast track the adoption of its novel app in clinical trials.
Charisse Litchman commented on how BeCare Link benefitted from the program. “The program enhanced our ability to communicate to pharma companies. We gained improved perspective on how we can work with these influential companies to help pharma bring life-changing medications to the market. More importantly, we demonstrated that partnering with BeCare will give patients and their physicians the tools to improve outcomes.”
(Photo above: Charisse D. Litchman, MD, Chief Medical Officer: 1st row, second from right; Larry Rubin, Founder, Chairman of the Board, CEO: 2nd row, far left).
For more full press release from PharmStars, go here.
