RDMD Secures $14M in Financing to Expand Platform for Sanfilippo, Other Rare Disorders

Healthcare technology company RDMD has raised $14 million to further expand its platform seeking to accelerate research and treatment development for rare diseases, including Sanfilippo syndrome.

The Series A financing was led by Spark Capital, with participation from Lux Capital, Village Global, Garuda Ventures, and Maveron. Also participating in the round were some so-called “angel investors” and patient organizations.

The company’s patient-centered technology platform generates deep clinical evidence to advance rare disease research and therapy development. With the financing, RDMD plans to expand its platform within a year from 12 conditions to 20, and launch corresponding studies for each.

For all the disorders, the company will use the funds to collaborate with patient advocacy groups and academic consortiums that are ready to build condition-specific evidence platforms. For Sanfilippo — one of the dozen current conditions — RDMD is partnering with the Cure Sanfilippo Foundation.

The company has gained patient medical information from more than 1,500 hospitals, and has expanded its platform globally to patients in Canada. It plans to expand into Europe soon.

“There is so much we still need to know about many rare diseases, including Sanfilippo syndrome, the condition my daughter Eliza is living with,” Cara O’Neill, MD, the foundation’s chief science officer, said in a press release. “RDMD gathered more than 7,000 medical records from hospitals across the U.S. and Canada for our Sanfilippo community, and their research team generated meaningful insights to produce a research poster within months.”

In addition to its platform, RDMD has developed an application that allows patients and families to safely and easily participate in online research. In part, the funding will be used to improve patients’ research experience in each disease community, including Sanfilippo syndrome. Since its launch, the app has grown to more than 1,000 users.

The Sanfilippo syndrome research program speeds therapy development, accumulates personal medical data in one place, allows participants to follow new trials, and makes the de-identified health data part of multiple research projects. Patients and parents may go here to participate.

“Since our $3 million seed funding and founding in 2018, RDMD has been committed to empowering patients with rare diseases by driving access to their own medical data and providing an easy way to directly impact future drug development for their conditions,” said Nancy Yu, RDMD co-founder and CEO.

“Today, we are the only patient-centered, regulatory-grade, real-world evidence platform focused on the unique and growing challenges in rare disease drug development. The traditional model just isn’t cutting it for rare disease communities and we aim to redefine the model. We are honored to welcome such a tremendous Series A group of leading healthcare and tech investors who believe in our mission. We are also very excited to announce success in establishing industry partnerships and growth in our patient communities,” said Yu.