Regeneron makes another deal — This one about AI

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Good morning health tech readers!

Today, many health tech deals.  

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Regeneron health tech deals: 23andMe and Viz.ai

Regeneron has been busy, with two health tech deals announced this week: One is about genetic data and one about AI. Both of them are about developing and selling drugs, really.

On Monday, the company announced it has agreed to buy consumer genetics firm 23andMe out of bankruptcy for $256 million, STAT’s Matthew Herper reports. Regeneron pledged to detail its intended use of customer data to a court-appointed official “and other interested parties.” The company hopes to use 23andMe’s huge trove of genetic data to help develop new drugs, an ambition that 23andMe never pulled off.

And this morning, Viz.ai announced it would partner with Regeneron and Sanofi on an “AI-powered workflow solution” for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The drugmakers will support Viz.ai’s development of a “care acceleration” product that will scan medical records with natural language processing to help identify high-risk COPD patients for possible follow-up.

Incidentally, Regeneron and Sanofi are working together on the development of the antibody itepekimab for the treatment of COPD, and they expect to submit the drug for approval this year, according to Sanofi’s pipeline website. The two companies also partner on the blockbuster Dupixent, which was recently approved to treat COPD. The press release for the new Viz.ai partnership makes no mention of drugs.

This is not Viz.ai’s first go-around with drug developers. A few years ago, I reported about the company’s work with Bristol Myers Squibb on AI to aid detection for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition that BMS makes a drug for and may be key to its future.

Commure’s legal trouble and new EHR

From STAT’s Brittany Trang: Late last month, health care safety technology company Canopy obtained a legal injunction against General Catalyst- and Sequoia-backed Commure, barring it from advertising or selling Commure’s Strongline Pro medical worker duress badges until litigation between the companies is resolved. Commure was a former Canopy customer that the company alleges violated the terms of its license and copied Canopy’s tech. At a Commure event in San Francisco last week, Peter Rodrigues, a VP of sales at the company, told me he thought the issue would be resolved soon.

Commure, which has bought several health tech companies, including Augmedix, Athelas, and Memora, has a large suite of products for revenue cycle management, remote patient monitoring, ambient documentation, and more. Executive medical director Jean-Luc Neptune told me its RCM customers like the product so much they asked for a Commure EHR, so a couple of weeks ago, Athelas launched one called Air. The software is live in 20 health systems right now and will be in 50 to 60 by the end of the year, Commure and Athelas chief technology officer Dhruv Parthasarathy told me.

Denied by AI and other Summit highlights

STAT’s AI-focused Breakthrough Summit West last week was a smash. A few stories to highlight from the event: 

• UnitedHealth said it was too dangerous for him to be discharged. Days later, it denied his care
• Reed Jobs warns Trump funding cuts will undermine research needed for cancer breakthroughs
• ‘What wouldn’t I be worried about?’: Research leaders discuss threats to U.S. science
• Cancer leaders lay out an optimistic vision for how AI will enhance patient care
• As AI in health care proliferates, so do legal questions concerning its use

Notable fundraises: Cohere, Sprinter, Akido

• Cohere Health, which makes software to help with prior authorization and other health plan needs, raised a $90 million series C round led by Temasek. Deerfield Management, Define Ventures, Flare Capital Partners, Longitude Capital, and Polaris Partners also invested.
• Home health care company Sprinter Health raised a $55 million series B round led by General Catalyst with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and others.
• Akido, which is developing AI to aid in care delivery, raised a $60 million series B round led by Oak HC/FT.

Odds and ends: Microsoft, Woebot, Google, Oracle

• Microsoft detailed a “healthcare agent orchestrator” at its Build Developer conference. Stanford Medicine used the product to stitch together agents in hopes of improving cancer care.
• Woebot recently told users it would shut down its consumer app at the end of June, but if there’s trouble brewing at the company, founder Alison Darcy didn’t let on during an interview at TED 2025 in April.
• Oracle Health, Cleveland Clinic, and G42 announced plans “to develop a groundbreaking AI-based healthcare delivery platform.”
• Google is hiring a machine learning scientist for its consumer health research team.

What we’re reading

• UnitedHealth’s Optum working on Medicare risk scoring system that would use AI, STAT
• Why Apple still hasn’t cracked AI, Bloomberg Businessweek