A Dublin medtech startup has raised nearly €2m for its Canadian expansion
Pharmapod’s software platform is used to track and reduce medication errors.
IRISH MEDICAL SOFTWARE startup Pharmapod has secured a €1.9 million round of investment to expand its business in Canada.
The Dublin-based company was founded in 2012 by Leonora O’Brien, who has over a decade of experience in the pharmacy sector, and has offices in Toronto and London.
It has developed a cloud-based software platform for healthcare professionals to monitor any risks in the medication they prescribe and share findings with their peers.
The funding has been sourced from the Canadian Pharmacists Association, a representative body for pharmacists in Canada, which will now have one seat on the startup’s board of directors.
The funding will be put towards growing the hospital and home care side of its business.
Pharmapod has also won a tender for a medication safety program in Ontario that involved the startup working with 4,300 pharmacies around the province.
The company previously raised €1.9 million in a prior funding rounds from Enterprise Ireland, the AIB Seed Capital Fund and a number of angel investors from the pharmacy sector.
Reducing medication errors
According to figures from the World Health Organisation, medication errors cost around $42 billion globally every year.
O’Brien said it has become a significant problem in the pharmacy and wider healthcare sectors.
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This can contribute to long waiting times in hospitals as up to 8% of admissions are related to medication errors.
“Here in Ireland for example, medication errors are responsible for around 25% of litigation cases against GPs,” said O’Brien.
Pharmacies in Ireland are required to keep a record of prescription errors but there is no national database of these errors.
According to Pharmapod, this means that errors and lessons are not reported and shared around the industry so others can learn.
