Digital Health Ventures That Flew Too Close To The Sun

1.5 billion: that’s the number, in dollars, Forbes put for Proteus’ valuation last year. Dubbed as a healthcare unicorn, the startup even raised over $500 million in venture capital. It made headlines for developing the first-ever FDA-approved digital pill, one equipped with an ingestible and trackable sensor to monitor treatment compliance.  Researchers even proved the technology’s worth. In 2019, an independent study investigated the Proteus’ digital pill. They found it to be accurate, and even improved adherence of tuberculosis patients using oral pills equipped with Proteus’ system. https://www.engadget.com/ How then, did this company file for bankruptcy in June 2020? As the technology is sound, it’s another factor altogether that’s the culprit here: the human factor. The management failed to reach certain milestones within deadlines under pressure from major investments. Couple that with an off-putting price tag of $1,650 per month, while the generic drug costs less than $20 monthly, it failed to find adopters quickly. This caused the company to struggle financially, to furlough most of its employees and earlier this year, Proteus’ major partnership fell through. Tales of companies coming up with promising technologies offering wild possibilities and amassing investments from leading investors are rampant in the industry. And it’s not just startups, but also Big Tech companies that suffer from mismanagement issues. These management...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Artificial Intelligence Future of Medicine Future of Pharma Genomics AI cancer IBM google deepmind theranos Watson fail digital pill proteus deus ex machina tech giants finances otsuka Nightingale Source Type: blogs