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Ex-Invitae Spinoff Relaunches as Citizen Well being, Picks Up .5 in Seed Funding


A Silicon Valley-based startup previously often known as Ciitizen relaunched as Citizen Well being on Tuesday — in addition to introduced a $14.5 million seed funding spherical led by Transformation Capital and a brand new partnership with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

The corporate’s efforts started in 2017, when Ciitizen launched with the intention of giving sufferers higher entry to their well being data. The startup was then acquired by Invitae in 2021 via a $325 million cope with the aim of permitting sufferers to entry genetic testing and their well being data in a single place.

In December — two months earlier than Invitae filed for chapter — the corporate divested the Ciitizen platform. Invitae mentioned that it transferred its belongings to “a brand new entity established by the management staff of the Ciitizen enterprise and funded by a gaggle of enterprise capital buyers.”

That new entity has now formally launched, and the overarching aim has remained the identical: to empower sufferers with entry to their full well being historical past.

Most of Ciitizen’s work centered on the oncology area, however the brand new startup is zeroing in on uncommon illness, famous Citizen Well being CEO Farid Vij.

“Our focus now could be: how will we assist sufferers get entry to all of their data? Meaning their medical data, genetic genomic data, imaging knowledge and self-reported gadget knowledge so we will paint a whole image of a affected person’s well being — after which actually leverage AI and group to have the ability to drive a extra customized expertise for them. And the place we’re beginning is in uncommon illness,” he defined.

Vij identified that half a billion folks worldwide are impacted by uncommon illnesses — and 95% of those illnesses don’t have a remedy. He additionally famous that sufferers and households usually know extra concerning the illness and learn how to navigate it than the physician as a result of the situation is so uncommon.

Nearly all of uncommon illness sufferers are kids, he added.

“It’s not solely a affected person that’s impacted — it’s the whole household. And numerous these are fairly extreme circumstances — the typical affected person on our platform is seen by 9 totally different suppliers concurrently. So your knowledge is form of scattered in all places. You’re continuously going to the neurologist and the nutritionist and the occupational therapist, they usually’re not all speaking to at least one one other, so it’s actually tough to have your complete story pulled collectively,” Vij acknowledged.

Not solely does Citizen Well being pull collectively each affected person’s particular person journey, nevertheless it additionally permits them to share their journey with different sufferers on the platform. 

By making a platform to debate shared experiences, Citizen Well being provides its customers a possibility to attach with others and doubtlessly study extra about which remedies are working and which aren’t, Vij remarked.

“On the opposite aspect, whenever you mixture all of that data collectively, it’s in all probability the richest supply of information to drive analysis and drug improvement. The large explosion we’re seeing in uncommon illness drug improvement proves that the normal course of doesn’t work effectively — as a result of it’s actually laborious to search out sufferers, and it’s actually laborious to get knowledge round these uncommon populations,” he mentioned.

By stratifying the info on Citizen Well being’s platform into numerous affected person cohorts, researchers can start to know the pure historical past of sure illnesses and what signs seem like throughout teams of sufferers, Vij identified.

As for the startup’s enterprise mannequin, Citizen Well being does generate profits from sharing affected person knowledge, however customers of the platform should present specific consent earlier than any of their knowledge is shared, he acknowledged.

“We speak about this on a regular basis — that our healthcare knowledge is bought oftentimes with out our information. We don’t promote knowledge. We permit sufferers to have the ability to share their knowledge for analysis functions and be capable of drive who sees their knowledge and for what function. Every time there’s any industrial use of the info, that’s when Citizen makes cash — and we really take a % of that and share it again with the affected person, in addition to a % again with our nonprofit companions in the event that they’re concerned in that situation space,” Vij defined.

The nonprofit companions he talked about are primarily organizations led by uncommon illness sufferers or their household caregivers that search to offer help and sources for the impacted group, in addition to advocate for higher analysis. 

When corporations are clear with sufferers about the way in which their knowledge is getting used, sufferers will normally decide to share their knowledge, Vij added. He mentioned greater than 98% of Citizen Well being’s customers share their knowledge for analysis functions.

Picture: Galeanu Mihai, Getty Photographs

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