Irish medical start-up Beyondbmi has raised more than €500,000 in a funding round from investors including Ergo chairman John Purdy as it looks to fill a gap in the market for medically validated weight-loss solutions for patients suffering from obesity.
The company, a spin-out from University College Dublin’s Nova research and innovation hub, has developed a programme that incorporates doctor-prescribed obesity medication, nutritional therapy and one-to-one coaching to help patients hit their weight-loss targets.
Cofounded by its chief executive, medical doctor Harriet Treacy, along with product designer Peter Lumley, obesity scientists Alex Miras and Carel Le Roux, and clinical nutritionist Werd Al-Najim, Beyondbmi’s platform is informed by recent scientific discoveries around the causes of obesity.
Ms Treacy said that new drug treatments are able to combat the biological and hormonal causes of feeling hungry. Combined with behavioural treatments and nutritional therapy targeting the biology underlying the condition, she said clinical trials conducted in the United States in 2021 indicated that this integrated approach can lead to 15 per cent weight loss over little more than a year on average.
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“Our mission at Beyondbmi is to provide a scientifically-based alternative to the outdated approach of ‘eat less, move more’ which, research has shown, is an ineffective long-term approach to weight management,” said Ms Treacy. “For too long, the symptom of hunger associated with excess fat accumulation has been treated as an issue of willpower which causes untold harm to people who often internalise the failure of the treatment as a personal or moral failure. Thankfully, we now have more effective solutions.”
Last month, Beyondbmi closed an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, raising €525,000 from investors including Mr Purdy; KPMG partner Eoghan Quigley; CKS Finance founder Conor Sheahan and Grant Thornton head of corporate finance Paddy Dillon. It says the funds will be used to launch the platform and demonstrate its efficacy.
“As a practising doctor, I have treated hundreds of patients who are experiencing health conditions they are not aware are a direct result of excess body fat,” Ms Treacy said, including high blood pressure, diabetes and infertility. With obesity having reached epidemic proportions in Ireland, according to the World Health Organisation, “momentum is building for better solutions”, she said.
The Financial Times reported last week that the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies are lining up to develop a new class of drugs known as glucagon-like peptide 1 agonists (GLP-1), which target an area of the brain that regulates appetite.
Originally developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, research has indicated that GLP-1s, combined with lifestyle changes and clinical engagement, can lead to substantial weight loss in patients when administered as a once-weekly injection under the skin.
Beyondbmi’s clinicians will be able to prescribe these and other weight-loss drugs to patients who sign up.
Patients will also receive a detailed health assessment, personalised weight management, one-to-one monthly video coaching sessions and a clinical review of their progress every three months. They can also access their information or discuss their progress with the Beyondbmi team through its proprietary platform and app.
JP Morgan recently forecast that the global obesity drug market would be worth more than $50 billion (€46 billion) in annual revenues by 2030.
