Verana Health mines $150m

Pharmaceutical firms Johnson & Johnson and Novo have co-led a $150m series E round for US-based clinical data platform developer Verana Health, highlighting the growing importance of data analytics in the healthcare market.

GV, a subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet, also took part in the round, as did pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co’s Global Health Innovation Fund, Casdin Capital, THVC, Breyer Capital and private investor Brook Byers.

Johnson & Johnson and Novo took part through subsidiaries Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Novo Growth, and it took the total raised by Verana to at least $287m.

Verana aggregates clinical information from a range of clinical databases, analysing anonymised data to support medical research. Proceeds from the round will be used to grow its product and service line along with its partnership base.

Data analytics in healthcare has come to the fore in recent years due to its potential in diagnostics, prevention, early disease detection and public health policy analysis. Its importance during the covid-19 pandemic has not gone unnoticed by investors.

In 2020, the big data healthcare market was valued at over $23.7bn and is expected to rise to $58.4bn by 2026, representing a compound annual growth rate of 16.2%, according to Mordor Intelligence. While North America is the largest market for medical data analytics, Asia Pacific is currently the fastest growing region.

Healthcare data aggregator Truveta raised $95m in a July 2021 series A round that included its 17 founding healthcare systems as well as peers Baylor Scott & White Health, MedStar Health and Texas Health Resources, hiking its total funding to $200m in November with backing from Ochsner Health, Saint Luke’s Health System and UnityPoint.

The sector has also seen some consolidation over the past year, with Roivant Sciences-backed medical data exchange Datavant and Merck & Co-backed healthcare data software provider Ciox Health agreeing a $7bn merger in June 2021.

Verana’s executive chairman, David Parke, said: “The healthcare industry needs new ways of creating high-quality data sets from disorganised information dispersed throughout a myriad of electronic health record systems that often lack interoperability and standardisation.

“Verana Health is solving this critical need by delivering and analysing proprietary, curated data sets, Qdata, from both structured and unstructured data that maintain truth to original clinical context.

“The company is well-positioned to help healthcare providers advance quality care standards and life sciences companies accelerate clinical research and bring products to market that benefit both patients and physicians.”

Verana last raised money in a February 2020 round that brought in $100m from GV, Bain Capital Ventures, Casdin Capital, Define Ventures and unnamed existing investors.

GV had previously led a $30m series C round for the company in 2018 that also featured industrial and power technology group General Electric’s corporate venturing unit, GE Ventures, in addition to Lagunita Biosciences, Biomatics Capital and Brook Byers.