During this week, two major distribution partnerships were announced by digital health companies. Viome Life Sciences enters into a distribution deal with CVS, to have its Gut Intelligence Test sold in 200 locations across the U.S., meanwhile, Mahana Therapeutics has entered into a distribution and marketing partnership with the Consumer Health division of Bayer. 

Why it’s notable: 

• Viome Life Science has secured $86.5 million in an oversubscribed Series C funding round. Alongside this funding, Viome has entered into a distribution deal with CVS, announcing that its Gut Intelligence Test will be sold in 200 locations of CVS, the leading retail pharmacy in the U.S. This will make the Gut Intelligence Test, the first-ever gut test available in the national retail chain both online and in-store.

• Furthermore, Mahana Therapeutics, known for its prescription digital therapeutic (PDT) for irritable bowel syndrome, entered a distribution and marketing partnership with the Consumer Health division of Bayer. The deal follows an announcement earlier this year by Bayer, of the launch of a new business unit focused on delivering new digitally enabled precision health products to market. 

Industry Implications:

• Despite numerous innovations in digital health in recent years, challenges with adoption and commercialisation of digital health solutions are well known. It is, therefore, encouraging to see digital health and pharma companies pursuing new pathways and partnerships to try and tackle these challenges and potentially create more opportunities for better adoption going forward. 

• As Viome is a DTC solution, compared to Mahana’s prescription DTx, it’s not surprising that these two major deals will utilise different pathways for the distribution of digital therapeutics. The partnership with CVS will give customers access directly through their pharmacy, compared to Bayer which plans to tap into new tech-savvy consumers looking for drug-free treatments as well as help eliminate gaps in care provision. It will be interesting going forward, to see how these distribution pathways play out in terms of consumer adoption of these products. 

Read the news story here.