Canadian pharmacy mega-chain Shoppers Drug Mart has entered into a commercial partnership with San Diego, Calif.-based blood testing startup Truvian Health.
Shoppers Drug Mart led an onsite evaluation that compared results from Truvian’s platform to a traditional central laboratory late last year.
The partnership was announced alongside Truvian’s $74-million funding round this week, which was co-led by Great Point Ventures and Wittington Ventures. Wittington Ventures is the venture investment arm of the Weston family’s holding company Wittington Investments, which is behind Canadian grocery conglomerate Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart.
Truvian has built a printer-sized device that allows clinicians to run a blood test in under 40 minutes without the need to send the sample to an external lab. Having long endured comparisons to Elizabeth Holmes’s controversial blood-testing startup Theranos, which resulted in Holmes being sentenced to 11 years in prison for fraud, Truvian is looking to use the funding to advance the clinical trials needed to secure FDA clearance.
Truvian will simultaneously seek approval for its platform from Health Canada, which CEO Jay Srinivasan hopes will be complete at some point next year, according to The Globe and Mail. The Globe also reported that upon approval, Truvian plans to launch in clinics, doctor’s offices, and pharmacies that have nurses or phlebotomists who can perform blood draws.
RELATED: Well Health acquires 10 primary care medical clinics from Shoppers Drug Mart
Shoppers Drug Mart and Truvian did not disclose details of the partnership, but revealed that Shoppers Drug Mart led an onsite evaluation that compared results from Truvian’s platform to a traditional central laboratory late last year, and that the results were consistent with one another.
“Working with our government partners, we believe in advancing technology to better support patient care, including comprehensive blood testing,” Shoppers Drug Mart president Jeff Leger said in a statement. “Truvian’s novel platform, combined with the convenience of accessing care in pharmacy, will be an amazing step forward in making care more accessible and convenient for patients.”
Wittington Ventures also co-led Truvian’s $105-million Series C round in 2021, which saw partner Megh Gupta join the company’s board of directors.
Feature image courtesy Truvian via its website.