Cardio-focused company Kardigan is sewing a new digital data platform into its R&D patchwork through the acquisition of heart health tech firm Prolaio.
The union of the two companies, which share common cofounders, will provide Kardigan with Prolaio’s cardiovascular data collection and analysis platform, the companies announced in a March 27 release. Prolaio in turn will be able to reach more patients and doctors with its health monitoring technology, thanks to Kardigan’s operational scale, according to the release.
Through the acquisition, Kardigan will gain access to the large clinical cardiovascular data set that Prolaio has amassed since its 2021 founding.
“If we have any shot at radically reducing the time and cost to develop meaningful new medicines and provide better healthcare for patients, biopharma companies today need to fundamentally embrace real-world data and AI-based tools in a way that is fully integrated across R&D,” Tassos Gianakakos, cofounder and CEO of both Kardigan and Prolaio, said in the release.
Prolaio provides an app to cardiac patients after they leave the hospital that uses an electrocardiogram patch, a blood pressure cuff and regular questionnaires to monitor symptoms and provide data to the patients’ doctors, according to the company’s website.
The platform also includes a function that interprets data to provide suggested actions for cardiovascular diseases, all of which is designed to help Kardigan create optimal clinical trials with sufficient statistical power and reduced overhead costs.
Kardigan debuted in January with a heart-pounding $300 million series A and a pipeline of late-stage assets that have not yet been disclosed. The firm plans to bolster the early-stage side of its pipeline by harnessing its cardio-specific R&D tools, which now includes Prolaio’s platform. Kardigan’s focus is on unmet needs in cardiology, including primary and secondary cardiomyopathies leading to heart failure, the company said in January.
In addition to Gianakakos, Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D., is also a cofounder of both companies. Before the acquisition, Edelberg served as chief medical officer of Kardigan and head of R&D at Prolaio. Both cofounders previously worked together in the C-suite of MyoKardia, another heart-focused endeavor that was snapped up by Bristol Myers Squibb for a massive $13 billion sum in 2020. Edelberg will remain CMO of Kardigan and will oversee the company's work with Prolaio in his role as a member of Kardigan's executive committee.