Kardigan Acquires Prolaio to Build Innovative Heart Health Platform
Kardigan, a heart health company focused on modernizing cardiovascular (CV) drug development, has announced its acquisition of Prolaio, a clinical intelligence company dedicated to advancing cardiology research and care through real-world patient data and analytics. This acquisition marks a major step toward integrating advanced data-driven insights into cardiovascular disease (CVD) treatment and drug development.
Prolaio is known for its FDA-cleared patient monitoring software and has curated one of the largest CV clinical datasets in the industry. With a cutting-edge analytics platform, Prolaio aims to predict and help clinicians proactively treat heart-related health challenges. This acquisition allows Kardigan to leverage Prolaio’s high-density patient data and proprietary software to optimize its research and development efforts, accelerating progress across its late-stage CVD drug pipeline. By incorporating Prolaio’s platform, Kardigan aims to enhance efficiency, improve patient outcomes, and reduce drug development costs.
Through this strategic alignment, Prolaio will gain access to Kardigan’s operational scale, further extending its impact to both patients and healthcare providers. This expansion will facilitate cost-effective solutions that improve access to care, enhance patient satisfaction, and drive better clinical outcomes.
“Kardigan and Prolaio were both founded to challenge the status quo in cardiology,” said Tassos Gianakakos, co-founder, chief executive officer, and chair of Kardigan, as well as co-founder of Prolaio. “If we have any shot at radically reducing the time and cost required to develop meaningful new medicines and improve healthcare for patients, biopharma companies must fully embrace real-world data and AI-based tools in a way that is seamlessly integrated across research and development. By taking a combined approach, we are setting a precedent for something that both big pharma and big tech have struggled to implement successfully. Together, Kardigan and Prolaio represent a new and innovative heart health company.”
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, and its prevalence continues to rise. Current standards of care have not kept pace with the growing health crisis. Unlike oncology and rare diseases, where precision medicines have transformed treatment approaches, CVD has yet to experience a comparable breakthrough in precision medicine. Kardigan and Prolaio aim to bridge this gap by leveraging data-driven insights to drive targeted therapeutic development.
“We’ve long believed that meaningful data holds immense potential to transform the way we approach therapeutic development,” said Jay Edelberg, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and chief medical officer of Kardigan, and co-founder of Prolaio. “Cardiovascular disease is uniquely suited to benefit from this approach given the wealth of information we can now gather from the heart using modern technology. By expanding our team of dedicated cardiovascular experts and combining our strengths in drug development and technology, we are establishing an unparalleled understanding of heart health. Our ultimate goal is to bring cardiovascular patients closer to the cures they deserve.”
Prolaio’s platform includes an advanced clinical trial enrichment capability that translates high-density data into actionable insights specific to cardiovascular conditions. This connected data platform enhances researchers’ ability to optimize clinical study design, increase statistical power, reduce operational overhead, and improve data quality throughout studies. Beyond its clinical research applications, Prolaio’s technology has the potential to revolutionize individualized patient care, transforming how cardiovascular care is delivered while improving patient engagement and satisfaction. Despite the acquisition, Prolaio will continue to function independently as a CV-focused technology company, delivering real-world-driven insights and services to both its biopharma and CV provider partners.
Kardigan’s research and development platform is designed to harness a proprietary set of cardiac-specific tools, with Prolaio playing a central role in refining its approach. This unique methodology enables a deep understanding of disease mechanisms and patients’ individualized responses to treatment. By matching critical disease drivers with patients most likely to respond to specific treatments, Kardigan can streamline clinical trials and expedite the delivery of novel therapies to those who stand to benefit the most. This targeted approach also identifies alternative therapies for patients who may not respond to initial treatments, ultimately broadening the scope of effective cardiovascular care.
Prolaio’s platform has been rigorously validated, boasting five FDA-cleared algorithms, more than four million hours of patient data, and over 20 issued patents. The company’s technology has been deployed in more than 26 countries worldwide, underscoring its global impact in cardiovascular research and patient monitoring. With this level of validation and adoption, Kardigan is well-positioned to integrate Prolaio’s capabilities to drive innovation in CV drug development and personalized patient care.
