Bicycle Well being raises one other $5M to develop opioid use dysfunction remedy

Bicycle Well being, a startup that provides digital remedy for opioid use dysfunction, raised a $5 million Collection B extension from Cobalt Ventures.

The addition brings the spherical’s whole to $55 million. It additionally introduced a $27 million Collection A in June 2021. 

WHAT THEY DO

Based in 2017, Bicycle offers digital care and medication-assisted remedy for opioid use dysfunction. It affords Suboxone, a drug mixture of buprenorphine and naloxone that may assist scale back withdrawal signs and forestall cravings. Customers may entry on-line assist teams with different sufferers in restoration.

Bicycle has additionally been including partnerships up to now this 12 months. In August, the corporate introduced a collaboration with emergency telehealth supplier Tele911 to attach sufferers to persevering with care after an overdose or well being disaster. Evernorth, insurer Cigna’s well being providers arm, can also be partnering with the startup to incorporate its digital remedy in its behavioral well being community. Cigna well being plan clients who obtain well being protection by means of their employer or market change plans in 24 states may even have entry to Bicycle’s program. 

“From an absence of geographical entry to excessive monetary and social prices, in-person remedy isn’t designed for almost all of Individuals. Over the previous three years, Bicycle Well being has confirmed that there’s one other technique to deal with habit by means of our evidence-backed telehealth remedy mannequin,” Ankit Gupta, Bicycle Well being founder and CEO, stated in a press release. “This extra funding from Cobalt Ventures will allow us to develop our remedy to much more sufferers throughout the nation, and finally assist extra individuals stay addiction-free lives.”

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Opioids proceed to be a critical public well being concern within the U.S. In response to the CDC, overdose deaths involving opioids elevated from about 70,000 in 2020 to greater than 80,000 final 12 months. Total, drug overdose deaths elevated by practically 15% in 2021. 

Nevertheless, a current examine revealed in JAMA Psychiatry discovered receiving opioid use disorder-related telehealth providers through the COVID-19 pandemic was related to decrease odds of medically handled overdose and higher retention with drugs like methadone and buprenorphine.

Different digital well being corporations centered on habit care embody Boulder Care, which lately raised $36 million; Ophelia, which scooped up $50 million in Collection B funding final 12 months; Workit Well being, which introduced a $118 million elevate practically a 12 months in the past; and Give up Genius, which lately had two substance use dysfunction applications added to Evernorth’s digital well being formulary.