“We welcome Northpond, Deerfield and Casdin and are thrilled to have them join our existing investors in our shared goal of improving patient lives and outcomes. Neurodegenerative diseases represent a new and important frontier for innovation in the quest to address significant unmet needs and transform care,” said William A. Hagstrom, Founder and CEO of Octave Bioscience. “These are complex diseases with significant variation in practice and, in the end, highly variable results. Current patient evaluations are often subjective, qualitative and lacking in precision. Octave is transforming this field, beginning with MS, by creating novel capabilities in measurement, monitoring and management to break through the complexity and provide physicians and their patients more precise clinical insights. ”

Octave Bioscience is completing development of a comprehensive, first-in-class care management platform for neurodegenerative disease, beginning with MS. The platform includes tracking of blood based biomarkers, enhanced MRI insights and patient monitoring using mobile tools, sensors and a nurse led care partner program. These novel measurement tools feed into care pathway models and analytical support systems designed to improve patient management decisions, generate better outcomes and lower costs.

“Beyond multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS and Alzheimer’s disease are chronic, debilitating diseases, which can lead to inevitable progression and huge burdens on families, the medical community and society,” said Michael Rubin, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO of Northpond Ventures. “Northpond is excited to lead this investment as we believe Octave’s solution will transform the way neurodegenerative diseases will be managed by providing expanded insights into a patient’s specific disease stage, severity and progression while accessing care protocols and evidence-based insights to improve patient outcomes and quality of life.”

“MS is a catastrophic disease with over $4 million in lifetime costs per patient. Despite 18-plus approved treatments to date, the disease continues to progress, resulting in high medical costs, including visits to the ER and hospitalizations that have significant impact on a typical health plan,” said Julian Harris, MD, Partner of Deerfield. “The key to improved performance is to lower MS disease activity, avoid relapses, slow progression and optimize the drugs now used. As the country’s first true population health precision medicine company, Octave can make a huge impact by providing physicians with the tools, pathways and protocols needed to improve performance. Moreover, programs to improve care coordination, optimize physician networks and deliver higher value case management can provide a major impact at the population level.”

“The introduction of a novel, next-generation objective measurement and management system that will help patients and physicians understand disease trajectory and help to guide therapy decisions is the key to truly personalizing care management for a patient population looking for better answers,” said Brook Byers, Chairman and founding investor in Octave Bioscience. “From the beginning, we have remained true to our goal of creating a new care model to improve health outcomes and deliver value throughout the entire MS ecosystem.”

About Multiple Sclerosis

MS is a chronic, lifelong, debilitating disease that affects approximately one million patients in the US, striking people in their 20’s with a 2:1 prevalence in women. The disease is driven by autoimmune and inflammatory processes as well as neurodegeneration, including demyelination and axonal damage. Estimated lifetime cost of MS is more than $4 million and the estimated total cost in the U.S. is $28 billion.¹ MS is ranked second, behind only congestive heart failure, in direct all-cause medical costs.² While there are now more than 18 approved treatments called disease modifying treatments, drug prices have continued to rise, costing between $60,000 and $100,000 per year.²

About the Octave Bioscience Comprehensive Care Platform

Octave Bioscience’s Comprehensive Care Platform provides a quantitative, objective measurement system designed to expand clinical insights in neurodegenerative disease, beginning with MS. It provides multiple layers of insight to provide a 360 degree view with a longitudinal perspective of disease progression. The first layer measures the patient’s underlying biology with blood based biomarkers that quantitatively and objectively assess inflammation and immune modulation. The second layer includes advanced measurement using improved MRI readings and interpretation to reveal more insights at the CNS layer, including the brain and spine. The final layer features real time tracking of symptoms via monitoring with mobile tools, sensors and wearables to identify changes in disease and alert care teams. All of this data is integrated into protocols, supported by decision support tools and feeds into a dashboard for ease of use. The Octave Platform allows individual and population views to facilitate better stratification and contextual interventions.

About Octave Bioscience

Octave Bioscience was founded to deliver an end-to-end care management platform for multiple sclerosis as well as a full range of neurodegenerative diseases. Its Comprehensive Care Platform is designed to provide neurologists and their patients with objective metrics to facilitate informed care and shared decision making for better patient outcomes. Octave Bioscience is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.

About Northpond Ventures

Northpond Ventures is a global science, medical, and technology focused venture capital firm, with offices in Bethesda, Cambridge, and San Francisco. Northpond Ventures has in excess of $1 billion of committed capital. Our mission is to build a better tomorrow. Learn more at: npv.vc.

1. Optum.com, “Six Cost Drivers of Multiple Sclerosis”
2. J.Med Econ.2013; 16(5):639-47