PITTSBURGH, Pa. – April 21, 2016 – Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), Western Pennsylvania’s only pure life sciences investment firm, today announced 2016 was PLSG’s largest investment year since 2014. In 2016, the PLSG invested
$1.4 million into 14 companies that are poised to meet the challenges of an ever-changing health care environment.
“The U.S. health care system consumes roughly 18 percent of the U.S. economy, while other countries such as Canada, Mexico, France and the U.K. spend nine to 12 percent. Therein lies the challenge.” said Jim Jordan, President and CEO of PLSG.
“These countries can invest their savings into science, technology and infrastructure that advance their economies. The current health care policy debate is around the principles of how to run the U.S. health care system. Regardless of the policy and political climate, health care products must solve a problem, collapse the time to treatment and reduce overall costs to be effective.”
The PLSG guides researchers, entrepreneurs and emerging start-up companies through defining their products’ benefits and navigating the many challenges that arise during the early stages of company development. Ultimately, the PLSG helps bring life-changing health solutions to market, improving overall population health.
The PLSG made significant investments into companies that contribute to improving the nation’s health care in 2016:
- Invested $10,000 into Ariel Precision Medicine, a company using genetic profiling to ensure the individual’s genetics are matched with the best treatment for the individual.
- Invested $376,114 in Carmell Therapeutics, a company that develops products made from blood plasma for wound healing that desires to improve healing time and reduces infection.
- Invested $240,000 in Cognition Therapeutics, a drug discovery and development company focused on the prevention, stabilization or reversal of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Invested $250,000 in Complexa, Inc., a drug discovery company focusing on reducing the unwanted affects of inflammation in certain orphan (rare) diseases.
- Invested $57,000 into Forest Devices, a developer of AlphaStroke, a device that promises to collapse the time between the onset of a stroke and the application of treatment to minimize the negative effects on the brain.
- Invested $224,904 into Medrobotics, a robotics company extending the reach of minimally invasive surgery over open or conventional surgery. Today’s technology has limited reach because the tubes used to access the body are straight; Medrobotics flexible robotics arm unlocks that limitation.
- Invested $38,000 into Quantum OPS, an orthopedic surgery safety system that allows surgeons to immobilize, stabilize, and position patients for orthopedic surgery.
- Invested $205,000 into Wellbridge Health, which engages with patients digitally to remove barriers to care and monitor chronic health conditions such as congestive heart failure.
