Bayer strikes $98m deal with digital health firm One Drop

Bayer has taken a further stake in New York-based One Drop to support its plans to become a digital health business by developing new integrated care services for patients.

The German pharmaceutical company will work with One Drop on digital health products that span multiple therapeutic areas, with Bayer citing oncology, cardiovascular diseases and women’s health as potential targets.

The agreement is worth up to $98 million and will see Bayer increase its equity stake in One Drop, as the lead investor in the company’s Series C financing, and comes a year after Bayer invested $20 million in One Drop’s Series B financing round.

This next stage of their collaboration will see the companies use One Drop’s existing platform and its data-driven predictive capabilities as the basis for ‘modular’ solutions for patients with multiple chronic and complex conditions.

Jeanne Kehren, head of digital and commercial innovation at Bayer, said: “Building new digital business models is a key element of our business strategy with the ambition to actively shape the future of healthcare.

“We are convinced that a data-driven approach will empower patients to drive better outcomes for themselves and will bring back the person, not the disease, as the point of focus.”

The collaboration with One Drop would also accelerate Bayer’s evolution towards a digital health business, she added.

Under the terms of the agreement, One Drop will receive development fees and success-based commercial milestone payments, while Bayer will be in-line for royalties on sales generated by One Drop. The deal may also see Bayer provide future support for the commercialisation of any jointly-developed digital products.

Best known for its diabetes management platform, One Drop also currently supports patients who have high blood pressure or high cholesterol. Its app has been downloaded over three million times and the company says it can draw on more than 13 billion diverse health data points from its users.

One Drop’s CEO and founder Jeff Dachis said: “To deliver better health outcomes and cost savings at a population level, we must focus on individuals. One Drop delivers a personalised health transformation programme that dynamically tunes to your needs and behaviours each day, empowering each individual to achieve the best possible health outcomes.”