a16z Bio + Health

Adapt quickly or risk falling behind. Jonathan L., Chairman and CEO of Erasca, Inc., recently sat down with Jorge Conde, general partner at a16z, to discuss the importance of swiftly embracing change. Drawing from his experience leading multiple companies that had to make significant adjustments to stay competitive, Lim emphasizes that whether you're navigating challenging market conditions or pursuing new scientific breakthroughs, delaying decisions can hinder progress. According to him, the faster you adapt, the better the outcomes. Listen to the full conversation on Raising Health: https://lnkd.in/gDsSht2a

How can we ensure that everyone has access to life-saving medications, regardless of where they live? Alchemy is tackling this challenge by empowering small, underserved healthcare clinics to manage their own in-house pharmacies. Right now, most large hospitals offer pharmacy services, but less than 20% of safety net clinics do. This leaves rural, low-income populations at a major disadvantage. Alchemy provides these clinics with the tools and infrastructure they need to offer medication fulfillment, improve patient care, and create a sustainable revenue model for the clinics themselves. We're excited to partner with Alchemy! Read the full investment thesis from Julie Yoo and Jay Rughani: https://lnkd.in/enPiQySA None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see https://lnkd.in/gjmYWkHi for more information.

What if chronic diseases could be treated by targeting and eliminating the root cause—dysfunctional cells? Arda Therapeutics is pioneering a bold approach to selectively eliminate disease-causing cells. With advances in single-cell RNA sequencing and proteomics, Arda identifies specific cell populations responsible for conditions like fibrosis and autoimmune disorders. Their platform enables precision targeting of harmful cells while sparing healthy tissue, an approach that builds upon and extends the success of cell clearing therapies in cancer. Read the full investment thesis from a16z general partner, Vineeta Agarwala, MD PhD, and a16z investment partner, Becky Pferdehirt, PhD: https://lnkd.in/dFE66853 None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see https://lnkd.in/gjmYWkHi for more information.

Healthcare is failing to meet consumer needs: half of prescribed medications are never taken, and 88% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Despite representing 20% of the U.S. GDP, the health system remains complex, regulated, and frustrating for patients. But tech innovators, with their expertise in streamlining experiences and creating sticky consumer apps, are uniquely positioned to tackle this challenge. By applying their skills to healthcare, they can simplify logistics, improve patient engagement, and transform an archaic system into one that is consumer-friendly and effective. Recently, Vijay Pande, PhD and Daisy Wolf discussed how technologists have the opportunity to reshape healthcare. Listen on Raising Health: https://lnkd.in/gf_vNcyy

Part of AI’s strength lies in its ability to explore vast chemical spaces quickly and efficiently, discovering new targets and molecules with multi-objective optimization - like finding strong binders that are soluble and non-toxic - at a fraction of the time and cost. Recently, Surya Ganguli, Vijay Pande, PhD, and Bowen Liu explored these opportunities in a deep discussion on AI at the intersection of biology. Watch on Raising Health: https://lnkd.in/gUkCr5BK

How can Medicaid better serve pregnant women and reduce healthcare disparities? In the final episode of our 3-part Medicaid series, Marta Bralic Kerns, CEO of Pomelo Care, shares how her company is partnering with Medicaid to close gaps in maternal healthcare. Medicaid patients face higher risks, with conditions like diabetes and hypertension on the rise. Many times, Medicaid doesn’t even know a woman is pregnant until much later in her pregnancy. Join Marta and a16z venture partner, William Shrank to discuss how the company is solving this through proactive data tracking and personalized virtual care. Listen on Raising Health: https://lnkd.in/gDsSht2a

Who’s at #AHIPDigital? Julie Yoo, a16z general partner, is presenting today, September 24th, on Best in Class Digital Health Engagement Insights from Other Industries. She'll be in good company — 500 hundred forward-thinking healthcare leaders are coming together to dig deep into how new tech translates to more personalized care and better health outcomes.  More here: https://lnkd.in/eMY5xdEj

How do you simplify Medicaid navigation for millions of Americans? The process is notoriously complex, varying by state and fraught with barriers like changing eligibility rules, confusing enrollment options, and language limitations. Nikita Singareddy, CEO of Fortuna Health, outlines a three-part approach in her conversation with a16z venture partner, William Shrank: 👉🏼 Eligibility awareness: Helping households understand Medicaid eligibility, which vary based on income, immigration status, and even medical conditions. 👉🏼 Accurate enrollment: Ensuring the right information is submitted across different application methods (online, paper, in-person). 👉🏼 Renewal support: Guiding users through the renewal process to avoid denial or lapses in coverage. Listen on Raising Health: https://lnkd.in/gf_vNcyy

“GC Therapeutics is flipping the entire iPSC differentiation paradigm on its head. Rather than manually iterating through a limited set of differentiation protocols, the Human TFome technology platform instead deploys large-scale combinatorial screening to discover new hypotheses and better methods that are as-yet unknown to even the best biologists.” - Vineeta Agarwala, MD PhD, a16z general partner. Read the full investment thesis from Vineeta here: https://lnkd.in/gG8UaJdC

For many hard-to-treat diseases, delivering functional cells back to patients could offer enormous clinical benefit. But scaling cellular medicines is not an easy task. We believe GC Therapeutics’ innovative TFome™ platform will overcome this barrier by streamlining the differentiation and development of off-the-shelf iPSC-derived cell therapies, enabling rapid production with improved potency, efficiency, and scalability. Welcome GC Therapeutics to the a16z Bio + Health portfolio! None of the above should be taken as investment advice or an advertisement for investment services; please see https://lnkd.in/gjmYWkHi for more information.