Four Healthcare Companies Make Fast Company's 2019 Top 50 Most Innovative List

Innovation: The Student Surpasses the Master. When it comes to innovation, it is undoubtedly a well-worn topic, yet it remains perpetually relevant. Regardless of time or place, innovation plays an especially critical role in driving the development of the healthcare industry.

Recently, the renowned U.S. business media outlet Fast Company released its list of “The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2019,” with four healthcare companies from around the globe making the list:

#30: Biotech Company Foundation Medicine

#31: Medical Technology Company Arterys

#32: Biopharmaceutical Company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

#42: Fertility Services Company Modern Fertility

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) has compiled brief introductions and reasons for inclusion for these four companies:

Genomic testing of tumors and cancerous tissues is a fundamental step in determining treatment plans for many cancers. Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Massachusetts, USA, Foundation Medicine is a leading provider of such testing services.

Precision medicine represents the future of cancer treatment. In the field of oncology, patients typically undergo genomic testing of their tumors before deciding on a course of action. In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Foundation Medicine’s FoundationOne CDx genomic profiling test. This technology can analyze alterations in 324 known cancer-related genes from tissue samples, helping oncologists guide patients toward immunotherapy, clinical trials, or gene-matched therapies developed by partner companies.

In September 2018, the company received breakthrough device designation for its platform, which enables comprehensive “liquid biopsy” testing by analyzing 70 genes associated with cancer growth in blood samples, allowing physicians to monitor treatment response without the need for invasive tissue sampling.

Foundation Medicine has partnered with more than 50 biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to develop and match patient treatment regimens, while also lobbying insurers to cover the cost of this test. In March 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved coverage for one companion diagnostic (CDx) test for eligible patients.

Vincent Miller, Chief Medical Officer at Foundation Medicine, described treatment as “a chess game, a series of moves.” “To know what to do next, you must have readily available information for reference,” Miller said. The company plans to continue integrating its 250,000 genomic profiles with clinical data to accelerate drug development and “begin tackling more severe cancer challenges.”

In April 2010, Foundation Medicine raised $7 million in financing; in October 2011, it completed a $33.5 million Series A funding round; in September 2012, it secured $42.5 million in its Series B round, and four months later, an additional $13.5 million in its Series B+ round. On September 25 of the same year, the company went public on the NASDAQ stock market under the ticker symbol FMI.

In June 2018, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche acquired Foundation Medicine in its entirety for $2.4 billion, having previously purchased a majority stake in the company for over $1 billion in 2015.

Arterys, founded in 2011 and headquartered in California, USA, is a healthcare IT company. The company’s mission is to fundamentally transform medical imaging through high-performance cloud computing.

Arterys was founded to advance global medicine through data, artificial intelligence, and technology. Medical data is stored in medical images, and Arterys aims to address several challenges in this field through its efforts, including the substantial workload faced by radiologists, the insufficient accuracy of many current tools, and the need for greater consistency across practices.

Early detection of lung cancer through CT scans can increase the five-year survival rate from 16% to 56%, making a critical difference between life and death for patients. However, radiologists are in short supply and often overworked. In February 2017, Arterys received FDA clearance to market a pioneering “AI-as-a-service” software that assists physicians in rapidly detecting, measuring, and tracking tumors and lesions in lung CT scans, as well as liver MRI and CT scans. Several versions of this software also received FDA approval in February 2018.

This technology builds upon the company’s FDA-approved Cardio AI, the first cloud-based artificial intelligence platform for diagnosing cardiac issues. Debuting one year ago, Cardio AI reduces assessment time from 30 minutes to just 15 seconds by automating image analysis tasks typically performed manually by radiologists.

The company is also developing other products, including those for breast imaging. Arterys is authorized to operate in nearly 100 countries and signed a five-year agreement last August with a major hospital system in France to deploy its artificial intelligence platform, AI-as-a-Service. The platform is currently used in 100 hospitals worldwide.

“We will not replace humans,” said Fabien Beckers, the company’s CEO. “We provide them with more information to enable more accurate diagnoses and allow the system to handle manual tasks, so they can focus more on patients.”

According to available data, the company has completed seven rounds of financing since its inception. The known financing amounts are as follows: In January 2013, Arterys completed a $1.7 million seed round led by AMV; in December 2015, it completed a $7 million Series A round; in March 2016, Arterys raised $5 million in its Series A+ round; and on November 5, 2017, it completed a $30 million Series B round led by Temasek Holdings.

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals was founded in 2002. Last August, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, became the first company to bring an RNA interference (RNAi) therapy to market, with its drug Onpattro receiving FDA approval.

This medication is indicated for the treatment of hereditary amyloidosis. Hereditary amyloidosis is a rare disease characterized by the abnormal accumulation of amyloid proteins in the nerves and organs, which interferes with normal tissue and organ function, leading to nerve damage and other symptoms in patients.

John Maraganore, the company’s CEO, stated that the goal of RNAi therapeutics is to treat more complex diseases than most existing drugs can address, by “silencing” the production of disease-causing proteins without altering the patient’s underlying DNA code, thereby yielding unexpected therapeutic effects.

Maraganore stated that Onpattro is just the beginning. Alnylam has five RNAi-based drugs in the final stages of clinical trials, including treatments for hypercholesterolemia, which affects 11% of Americans, and hemophilia, with additional candidates currently in development.

Furthermore, in May last year, Alnylam published the results of a study that successfully delivered an RNAi therapeutic to regions of the brain and spinal cord, demonstrating the potential of this therapy to treat neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS.

The company also implemented an innovative pricing model. Onpattro is priced at $450,000, but the company will provide a full refund if test results do not align with clinical trial outcomes. Commenting on this, Maraganore stated, “We believe that value should be most accurately reflected in outcomes.”

In July 2003, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals completed a $24.6 million financing round; on June 4, 2004, the company was officially listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol ALNY; in March 2011, it completed a $10 million equity financing round exclusively invested by Takeda Pharmaceutical; and in January 2014, it completed a $7 million equity financing round.

Modern Fertility was co-founded by Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy in 2017. Headquartered in California, USA, the company began selling its pioneering direct-to-consumer fertility testing service in May 2018. Priced at $159, this service was the first test to measure eight reproductive hormones from a finger-prick blood sample.

Recent medical advances have established routine finger-prick testing methods in drug analysis, nutritional monitoring, and HIV screening; however, this approach was not widely adopted for fertility testing until modern reproductive technologies and their partner laboratories conducted research confirming the accuracy of finger-prick tests in measuring target hormones.

Previously, testing for these hormones required a blood draw and cost $1,500 at a clinic. The founders of Modern Fertility aim to make this test as routine as a Pap smear, providing actionable insights to guide timing for conception or decisions about egg freezing. Through online fertility workshops, user forums, quizzes, and guides for discussing results with physicians, the company aims to be more than just a test provider; it strives to become a fertility hub that facilitates open and transparent communication.

Since its establishment, the company has completed two rounds of financing, in August 2017 and May 2018 respectively, totaling $7 million.

(Compiled by Nie Guanghong)