In this week’s edition of InnovationRx, we look at AbbVie’s new megadeal, an agentic AI startup saving Medicare $2 million a week, how new student loan rules could degrade healthcare and more. To get it in your inbox, subscribe here.
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AbbVie is bolstering its franchise in immune-system disorders with its $10.9 billion cash purchase of Apogee Therapeutics.
Apogee launched four years ago as a spinout from biotech Paragon Therapeutics. Its lead drug, called zumilokibart, is a long-lasting injectable that could treat autoimmune conditions like asthma and atopic dermatitis. In phase 2 clinical trials for atopic dermatitis, about two-thirds of patients on the drug gained significantly clearer skin.
AbbVie’s blockbuster drug Humira, the rheumatoid arthritis medication that was once the top-selling drug in the world, now faces competition from biosimilars and has seen its sales plummet. The company has filled the gap with blockbusters Rinvoq (for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases) and Skyrizi (for Crohn’s disease and psoriasis), which are expected to top $34 billion in sales this year. Its total revenue last year was $61 billion.
AbbVie is paying a 49% premium over Apogee’s closing price on Thursday before the deal was announced. While that makes it “fairly expensive,” William Blair analyst Matt Phipps wrote in a research note on Monday, “the mega-blockbuster potential of zumilokibart ensures the company’s [inflammation and immunology] franchise continues to see robust growth through the 2030s.”
Cadence's Chris Altchek
Cadence
Caring for people with chronic disease accounts for the vast majority of the $5.3 trillion the U.S. spends every year on healthcare. AI can help keep seniors healthier and cut costs by monitoring common chronic illnesses like hypertension and diabetes, argues Chris Altchek, cofounder of Los Angeles-based startup Cadence. The goal: Help people over 65 get the right medications and earlier treatment, keeping them out of the ER.
“Everyone is trying to figure out how we improve outcomes for chronic disease. I think we are realizing that even if we double the number of primary care doctors it wouldn’t actually help because the way we treat disease with two-to-four doctor visits a year doesn’t work,” Altchek tells Forbes.
Cadence’s clinical AI agents are hooked into devices like blood pressure cuffs and blood sugar monitors, which monitor patient vitals remotely. It combines this data with information from patients’ electronic health records to recommend if someone should adjust their medication, or change their lifestyle. That enables Cadence’s system, which is supervised by physicians, to alert a clinician when a patient is deteriorating before a stroke or heart attack, for example.
Cadence touts data, published in peer-reviewed journals, that shows its model works: a 27% decrease in in-patient hospital admissions, a 230% increase in heart failure patients using recommended therapy, and a 70% increase in blood pressure control for hypertension patients. On the cost side, it showed a $1,300 per patient annual reduction in the total cost of care. The company says it saves Medicare roughly $2.7 million per week.
Today, Cadence treats more than 100,000 patients at 21 health systems, ranging from academic medical centers like Duke Health to Texas Health Resources, a faith-based non-profit with 24 hospitals around Dallas-Fort Worth. Its annualized revenue is on track to reach $140 million by the end of this year, more than double last year’s $62 million and nearly seven times higher than the $21 million it reached in 2024.
Now the startup tells Forbes that it has raised an additional $100 million in a round led by Spark Capital, the VC firm best known for being an early backer of Anthropic. The new money brings its total funding to $241 million at a valuation of $1.2 billion, up from $1 billion at December 2021.
A new law that kicks in on July 1 sharply limits the amount that graduate students can borrow from Uncle Sam. Under the new rules, graduate nursing students will be limited to borrowing $20,500 a year and $100,000 over the life of their graduate studies. By contrast, grad students studying to be optometrists, podiatrists, chiropractors, pharmacists, clinical psychologists, medical doctors, veterinarians, lawyers and clergy will be able to borrow $50,000 a year ($200,000 total) for their degrees.
That’s potentially a problem for nursing–and for healthcare. As the U.S. population ages, the country faces a growing shortage of doctors and nurses, exacerbated by the Trump Administration’s attempts to limit the influx of educated immigrants. The Department of Education’s limits on how much the 200,000 students in graduate nursing programs may borrow threatens to make the shortage even worse.
One reason is that the explosion of graduate-trained nurse practitioners has been easing a shortage of primary-care doctors in rural and underserved communities, as well as such specialties as geriatrics and psychiatry. Demand for nurse practitioners is projected to grow 40% by 2034, the highest growth rate for almost any job. With younger medical doctors gravitating to higher-paid specialties, there are now more nurse practitioners than doctors providing primary care, according to the federal Health Resources and Services Administration reports. If fewer people become nurses or nurse practitioners, access to primary care–and to quality healthcare, more generally–could decline, especially in these rural and underserved areas.
Jon Wang and Jeff Liu have a thing for cowboy hats. The cofounders and co-CEOs of Assort Health wear them everywhere, including to their board meetings and, recently, to raise venture money for their startup. "I just liked the look of them, the vibe," says Liu. "It's the wild west of healthcare."
It's a shtick, of course, but it also worked. With their hats on, the duo raised their third venture funding round in just 14 months to keep building out their voice AI chatbot for scheduling doctor appointments. The new funding of $120 million, led by Menlo Ventures, brings Assort’s valuation to $1.2 billion, up more than 70% from its valuation of $700 million last September. Assort has now raised a total of $222 million from top investors that include Lightspeed, First Round and Chemistry.
The flood of funding reflects just how miserable it is for both patients and doctors’ offices to schedule appointments. “It’s one of the most broken parts of healthcare today,” Wang says.
Some 15,000 physicians, across 23 specialties like orthopedics and dermatology, have now rolled out Assort Health’s AI agent to take all those calls for them. It has now handled 190 million patient interactions.
One 79-year-old patient received highly unusual “compassionate use” access to Lilly’s experimental weight loss drug in April. The White House subsequently denied on X that the patient was President Trump.
A Medicare AI pilot program is causing confusion, frustration and long delays for patient care.
The Treasury Department is considering new restrictions on American companies’ investments into Chinese biotech.
Using AI too much can degrade the skills of professionals–including doctors and nurses.
Public health researchers find that abortion bans force doctors to delay or withhold standard pregnancy care.
Businesses are taking risks to cash in on the craze for injectable peptides.
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