SamaCare Secures $17M Series B Investment to Scale Specialty Drug Prior Authorization Platform
Round led by new investor Questa Capital to help increase patient access to life-changing medications
SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- SamaCare, a cloud-based patient access platform for specialty medications, today announced that it has closed an oversubscribed $17 million Series B investment round led by new investor Questa Capital. Questa is joined in the round by existing investors Vive Collective and South Park Commons.
With this new round, SamaCare will accelerate product development of its one-stop patient access platform that saves healthcare organizations time and resources while ensuring patients receive therapy sooner.
The newest round of investment comes as SamaCare has demonstrated its ability to streamline patient access to treatments, having started with the frustrating experience of prior authorizations, a manual, paper-heavy process that health plans often require before a patient can use a specific drug. Since no commercial plan standards currently exist to regulate prior authorization requirements and processes, prior authorization management is fragmented, inconsistent, and often analog. As a result, it can delay or stop treatment for patients while creating unnecessary burdens for providers, patients, health plans, and other stakeholders.
"By digitizing the current manual paper-and-fax-heavy process, our platform reduces the administrative burdens that harm patient care, drive healthcare providers crazy, and raise costs for the system," said Syam Palakurthy, founder and CEO of SamaCare. "The support of Questa Capital and our current investors will help us accelerate much-needed change to a cumbersome system."
SamaCare will use the investment to build the comprehensive Script-to-Therapy Operating System™. It will enhance the platform's capabilities to better serve patients, providers, and pharmaceutical companies in several ways, including:
- Expanding beyond prior authorizations for a seamless digital experience to create a single connected post-prescription workflow.
- Enhancing collaboration among healthcare teams within and between provider offices.
- Leveraging AI to cut administrative delays and tedious paperwork.
- Creating a data insights engine for a faster and more effective Script-to-Therapy journey.
"We live in a time of medical miracles, but administrative and financial barriers to care are becoming more painful and time-consuming, impacting patients during their most challenging moments," Palakurthy said. "The Script-to-Therapy Operating System aims to address these obstacles and provide treatments at the moment of need."
"As a physician, I've navigated various administrative processes to secure vital medications for patients," shared Dr. Aabed Meer, Partner at Questa Capital. "Our team's extensive experience with investments within the specialty pharmaceutical ecosystem has deepened our appreciation for SamaCare's pivotal role in helping patients start and stay on their treatment regimens, ultimately leading to better outcomes."
Vive Collective CEO Cheryl Cheng has been working with Palakurthy and his team since leading their Series A. "The complex, targeted, and expensive nature of novel therapeutics creates friction in the system. SamaCare is a prime application of software and data intelligence that delivers clear ROI and benefit to all parties in the network," said Cheng. "Vive Collective remains committed to supporting SamaCare's journey to improve patients' access to essential medications."
SamaCare partners with over 15,000 providers and has helped some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Pharmaceutical clients partnering with SamaCare have seen abandonment rates drop by 24%, time-to-approval cut by over 84%, and a reduction in unnecessary administrative prior authorization denials by up to 42%.
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About SamaCare
SamaCare helps pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, payors, and other stakeholders quickly and cost-effectively deliver life-changing therapies to patients. The company provides a cloud-based workflow automation platform for medical practices to streamline specialty drug prior authorization, enrollment, and benefit verification. In addition, SamaCare delivers premium services and data analytics for pharmaceutical brands to improve access to therapy. SamaCare currently works with retina, oncology, neurology, and rheumatology practices that account for over $20 billion in annual specialty drug spend and continues to grow quickly. For more information, visit https://www.samacare.com.
About Questa Capital Management
Questa Capital is a venture growth equity firm focusing on investments in expansion-stage healthcare companies. Questa seeks technology-enabled business models that help improve patient lives and address market inefficiencies. The firm partners with superior management teams to help build innovative market leaders in the healthcare technology, services and medical devices sectors. Questa is led by industry veterans in healthcare investment and operations who have invested in and advised more than 60 growth-stage companies. More information is available at https://questacapital.com.
About Vive Collective
Vive Collective™ is a new investment platform to build, fund and scale the next generation digital health and healthtech companies. Vive provides a flexible partnership approach to back high-growth, disruptive digital health companies with a network of healthcare and technology experts and partners. More information is available at www.vivecollective.com.
SOURCE SamaCare
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