Mind Medicine (MindMed) Inc (NEO:MMED) (OTCQB:MMEDF) (FRA:MMQ) announced a cash-and-stock deal to acquire HealthMode, a digital medicine and therapeutics start-up that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled digital measurement to increase the precision and speed of clinical research and patient monitoring.
MindMed said it will pay about C$300,000 in cash and issue 8.3 million subordinate voting shares, which would value HealthMode at about C$41.3 million. The acquisition is expected to help the company build a full-stack digital mental health platform for psychedelic medicines.
“Our mission is to make MindMed as much a digital medicine company as a drug development company. With the addition of Dan and Bradford's team of engineers and product experts, our digital medicine division, Albert, is now the Special Ops of digital medicine, applying machine learning to drug development and patient care,” MindMed CEO J.R. Rahn said in a statement.
READ: MindMed seeks to harvest the power of psychedelics to treat mental health disorders
He added: “The future of modern mental healthcare and psychedelic medicine ultimately will rely on improving infrequent, self-reported and observed measures for mental health to a paradigm where the continual digital measurement of our mind and body is as vital as the drug treatment itself.”
“In effect, we see a future mental health treatment paradigm, where potential drug products such as our LSD experiential therapy might be prescribed right alongside software application programming interfaces (APIs) to prepare the patient for treatment and optimally monitor the after-care of one's anxiety disorder.”
With the acquisition, MindMed said it will gain access to HealthMode's Intellectual Property, platforms for clinical drug trials, and its entire 24-persons digital medicine team.
MindMed added that it will incorporate HealthMode's machine learning (ML) engineering, product development, and operations employees based in Silicon Valley, New York City, Bratislava, and Prague into MindMed's newly-established digital medicine division, Albert, which it anticipates will be capable of launching and commercializing psychedelic-assisted therapies and medicines at scale for patients.
The company noted that HealthMode Co-Founders Dan Karlin and Bradford Cross will also be joining MindMed’s executive team. Dr. Karlin, who will serve as MindMed’s Chief Medical Officer, previously held several leadership roles at Pfizer's Neuroscience Research Unit, while former Google AI/ML industry veteran Bradford Cross is set to become the company’s Chief Technology Officer.
MindMed’s acquisition of HealthMode is expected to close by the end of February 2021, with the final number of shares issuable and cash payable subject to adjustment prior to closing.
MindMed is a neuro-pharmaceutical company developing psychedelic medicines to improve health, promote wellness, and alleviate suffering.
Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com