ALISO VIEJO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Konica Minolta Precision Medicine, Inc. (KMPM), a subsidiary of Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) today announced the acquisition of the assets of Backpack Health (BPH), a secure mobile and web-based health data management platform.
The BPH tool empowers patients to securely store and manage their personal health information and automatically share with caregivers, as well as contribute authorized anonymized data to the research community, fully aligning with KMPM’s mission to advance precision medicine through genetics, imaging, pathology and artificial intelligence. The BPH management health tool will further bridge medical data gaps to better understand patient needs and unite KMPM’s precision medicine companies, Invicro LLC, a global provider of imaging biomarkers, core lab imaging services, advanced analytics and software solutions for drug discovery and development and Ambry Genetics Corporation, a leading clinical genetic testing lab.
“We are incredibly excited for the team at Backpack Health to join the KMPM organization,” stated Dr. Jack Hoppin, President of Konica Minolta Precision Medicine. “The mission of Backpack to facilitate relationships between foundations, individuals and patients in need and developers of novel therapeutics fits squarely at the center of our pharmaceutical and clinical research efforts at Konica Minolta Precision Medicine.”
“I'm excited to see the expansion of the Backpack Health platform offering with the addition of world-class genetic and image curation via the KMPM family,” noted Mr. James Cavan, Chief Executive Officer of Backpack Health. “The unique commitment to our users and foundations will be expanded by new and novel offerings. Drug manufacturers will realize an unprecedented research and community engagement linkage.” Mr. Cavan joins KMPM and Invicro as Vice President of Backpack Health leading product strategy and commercial operations.
The multilingual Backpack Health application is a complimentary portable health record (PHR) platform for registered patients and their delegated caregivers to manage their unique medical condition and data information and is fully desktop, iOS or Android accessible globally. Access to patient authorized de-identified PHRs will be made available gratis to medical foundations to build patient engagement communities and to pharmaceutical research sponsors for a fee to support drug development research and clinical trials.
“We are looking forward to bringing added value to our pharmaceutical sponsors through the utilization of the BPH platform,” commented Dr. Matt Silva, Chief Executive Officer of Invicro. “BPH will offer the pharmaceutical community improved patient connection and access to real-world data to accelerate drug discoveries for novel diseases.”
“Backpack Health is another key and unifying element of Konica Minolta Precision Medicine, allowing us to offer more opportunities to expand both our pharmaceutical and clinical services,” said Dr. Aaron Elliott, Chief Executive Officer of Ambry Genetics. “The platform nicely bridges the capabilities of KMPM and will better allow Ambry and Invicro to realize the synergies between them.”
About Konica Minolta Precision Medicine
Konica Minolta Precision Medicine, Inc. (“KMPM”) based in Aliso Viejo, CA is a subsidiary of Konica Minolta, Inc. that includes Ambry Genetics Corporation and Invicro LLC. Founded in 2018 on the belief that groundbreaking medical breakthroughs are possible by concentrating efforts on the health expression map, the undiscovered territory between an individual’s genetics and biological impacts, and quantifiably measuring health over time. KMPM’s health intelligence and visualization platform brings together the most novel and diverse set of data from genes, proteins, cells and tissues with sophisticated analytics and world-leading scientific and medical expertise, enabling more prescriptive, proactive and preventive care. For further information, visit: KonicaMinoltaPrecisionMedicine.com
About Invicro
Headquartered in Boston, MA, Invicro was founded in 2008 with offices, laboratories and clinics around the world, from coast-to-coast within the United States, to Europe and Asia that support leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology and top research universities. Invicro’s multi-disciplinary team provides solutions to help enhance the discovery and development of life-changing drugs across all stages of the drug development pipeline (Phase 0-IV), leveraging all modalities within a broad scope of therapeutic areas, including neurology, oncology, cardiology, and immunology. Invicro’s quantitative biomarker services, advanced analytics tools, and clinical operational services are backed by their industry-leading software informatics platforms, VivoQuant® and iPACS®.
Invicro is a Konica Minolta company and part of their precision medicine initiative, which aims to accelerate personalized medicine, discover novel therapeutic targets and develop innovative therapeutic technologies for unmet medical needs. Along with their sister company, Ambry Genetics, Invicro develops and leverages the latest approaches in quantitative biomarkers including imaging, quantitative pathology and genomics. Visit www.invicro.com for more information
About Ambry Genetics
Ambry Genetics, as part of Konica Minolta Precision Medicine, excels at translating scientific research into clinically actionable test results based upon a deep understanding of the human genome and the biology behind genetic disease. Our unparalleled track record of discoveries over 20 years, and growing database that continues to expand in collaboration with academic, corporate and pharmaceutical partners, means we are first to market with innovative products and comprehensive analysis that enable clinicians to confidently inform patient health decisions. We care about what happens to real people, their families, and the people they love, and remain dedicated to providing them and their clinicians with deeper knowledge and fresh insights, so together they can make informed, potentially life-altering healthcare decisions. For more information, please visit ambrygen.com.
About Backpack Health
Backpack Health, LLC builds secure, innovative information tools to help people manage their health journey — including wellness, illnesses, injuries, and chronic health conditions. The Backpack Health mission is to make it easy for everyone to access, own and control their health information to support better health care and attain better health for themselves, their loved ones and their communities. Backpack Health provides a platform for organizations to engage patients, collect up-to-date data and build communities around the globe. To assure data protection for its users' information, Backpack Health complies with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adheres to its data protection principles, and participates in the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks. Learn more at www.backpackhealth.com.
