CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saama Technologies, Inc. (“Saama”) today announced funds led by global investment firm Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) have made a strategic growth investment and will acquire a majority stake in the Company. A broad co-investor group with several healthcare-focused venture funds, including Amgen Ventures, Intermountain Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (“Merck GHI”), McKesson Ventures, Northpond Ventures, Pfizer Ventures, and Population Health Partners, will be investing alongside Carlyle.
The partnership will allow Saama to accelerate its strategic initiatives, including expanding its go-to-market capabilities and further investing in AI research and development.
Saama’s intelligent Life Science Analytics Cloud (LSAC) is used by over 50 pharma and biotech companies on more than 1,500 studies. As an end-to-end platform, LSAC provides a unified approach to clinical trial data management and analytics. LSAC’s pre-trained AI embedded smart applications have the ability to learn the complex patterns among clinical data and provide predictive insights to accelerate the clinical research process across a variety of domains and therapeutic areas.
“The life sciences industry is experiencing a massive shift in strategic approaches to accelerating drug development as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, and AI-driven analytics solutions like Saama’s LSAC are at the forefront. These solutions’ role in successfully enabling the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies to patients in mere months was the litmus test for the future of drug development,” said Suresh Katta, Founder and CEO, Saama Technologies. “This investment by Carlyle and leading healthcare-focused venture funds reflects the value they see in Saama’s leadership of this new era and the promise offered by our state-of-the-art solutions.”
“The life sciences industry is at an exciting crossroads, poised to adopt and integrate sophisticated data management and analytics solutions that we believe will accelerate clinical timelines in previously unimaginable ways,” said Joe Bress, a Managing Director specializing in Healthcare at Carlyle. “We’re excited to partner with Saama as they work to redefine the drug development paradigm.”
“AI-driven analytics solutions are transforming the way that data is managed and therefore the way that work is done. We believe Saama can play a key role in that transformation for the life sciences industry,” said Ashley Evans, a Managing Director specializing in Technology at Carlyle. “As the convergence of healthcare and technology reaches an inflection point, we are excited to help Saama capture the compelling market opportunity ahead.”
“Merck GHI sees tremendous opportunity in Saama’s mission of accelerating clinical trials,” said David M. Rubin, Ph.D., Managing Director at Merck GHI. “It is very exciting to be part of a world-class investment syndicate with such deep healthcare domain expertise and interest in supporting the build of scaled resources that have the potential to change the way clinical research and development is conducted.”
The investment in Saama is a continuation of Carlyle’s long-term global commitment to both healthcare and technology, in which it has invested $17 billion and $25 billion of equity since inception, respectively – including $2 billion in healthcare technology and tech-enabled growth companies.
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as legal advisor to Saama Technologies. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP acted as legal advisor and Guggenheim Securities LLC as financial advisor to Carlyle. Fenwick & West LLP acted as legal advisor to the syndicate.
About Saama Technologies, Inc.
Saama is the #1 AI-driven Intelligent Clinical Cloud company, enabling the life sciences industry to conduct faster and safer clinical development and regulatory programs. Today, over 50 biotech companies use Saama’s award-winning Life Science Analytics Cloud (LSAC) platform on more than 1,500 studies, including many of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies. LSAC’s rich applications facilitate an unprecedented, authoritative oversight of comprehensive clinical research data, enabling companies to file New Drug Applications (NDAs) more efficiently and bring drugs to market faster. Discover more at www.saama.com and follow Saama @SaamaTechInc.
About Carlyle
Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Investment Solutions. With $276 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2021, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs nearly 1,800 people in 27 offices across five continents. Further information is available at carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.
About Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (Merck GHI) is evolving corporate healthcare venture capital globally by utilizing their healthcare ecosystem strategy. This investment strategy connects innovative companies with complementary technologies to develop integrated healthcare solutions. Merck GHI has $500M under management and provides growth capital to emerging healthcare technology companies worldwide while leveraging the vast R&D-based, global resources of Merck. With a vision that data will be the currency in healthcare, Merck GHI invests broadly in digital health. Merck GHI invests in platform companies with proven technologies or business models where Merck’s expertise and perspectives can accelerate revenue growth and enhance value creation. Since late 2010, Merck GHI has made over 50 investments in Digital Health companies. www.merckghifund.com
