HealthTech startup Healx has secured a £1.5m Series A round from Amadeus Capital and Jonathan Milner, a healthcare entrepreneur.
The Cambridge-based firm, which uses machine learning and advanced data analytics, seeks to find new uses for existing drugs in an attempt to combat rare diseases.
Hermann Hauser, partner and co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, said: “Healx has taken advances in machine learning, data mining and analytics and combined them with deep pharma and life sciences expertise to address a growing need in the healthcare sector.
“With huge pressure on R&D budgets, drug repositioning will be essential in the fight against rare diseases,” he added.
Healx’s technology platform matches potential treatments to rare conditions and patients. The company aims to complete its drug repurposing studies within six months.
Tim Guilliams, founder & CEO at Healx, commented: “Studies into rare medical conditions have long failed to receive adequate funding.”
The firm says it will use the money to expand its technology platform and accelerate the drug review process, in hope to find treatments to more illnesses.
“By repurposing existing drugs to combat rare diseases, Healx is able to find potential treatments at a fraction of the cost and in a much shorter timeframe than developing a new drug,” Guilliams concluded.