From The Launch Place
Cloud-based SaaS startup OrbitalRX receives The Launch Place’s first investment of the year. The Launch Place, a venture development organization with offices in Danville, VA, and Research Triangle Park, NC, has invested $150,000 from their Seed Fund II in OrbitalRX, marking their twenty-third venture. OrbitalRX joins an investment portfolio of innovative, high-growth startups in the information technology, medical device, green technology, manufacturing, and other sectors.
With their drug shortage management platform, OrbitalRX presents a workflow solution compatible with hospital pharmacies in the United States and Canada. It’s a real-time drug inventory management combined with evidence-based clinical information that addresses the ongoing drug shortage crisis. The platform collaborates with IBM Watson health, which brings a wealth of medication information to the software and contributes to its timesaving efficacy.
Co-founder and CEO of OrbitalRX Adam Orsborn said he and Nate Peaty, co-founder and Chief Product Officer, saw the need for this technology throughout their decade of experience working in hospital pharmacies. According to Orsborn, around 95 percent of the market is still using spreadsheets to manage drug inventories, which consumes several hours of the pharmacy team’s time every week. The goal of OrbitalRX software is to automate the process of managing and ordering critical medication. It can simplify the process of making decisions on what to buy and maintain stock of medications needed for surgeries, diabetes, cancer patients and other critical needs within hospitals. Orsborn said this process can return more than ten hours of lost time to pharmacists and the medication supply chain team who were stuck manually logging and ordering drugs. This comes at a critical time in health care as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to impact hospital capacity and workloads, with some hospitals struggling under the pressure of staff shortages and budget cuts.
“OrbitalRX brings the energy, experience, and ideas that matches the values of The Launch Place and brings a product to the health care space that is truly needed,” said Eva Doss, The Launch Place President, and CEO. “We are happy to contribute to this funding round and are committed to providing the resources and expertise that they need to expand the reach of their software and meet their market goals.”
The University of Virginia was the first to adopt OrbitalRX’s platform. The software is now being used in six hospitals nationally. OrbitalRX coaches every client through the adoption process to ensure the platform works with the client’s existing communication process. While their primary focus is within hospitals at this time, Orsborn says that the company is not opposed to branching out into the retail pharmacy space. A potential pilot program in the works will give him and his team a better idea of the value that could be provided to this sector of health care. In the meantime, OrbitalRX will continue to grow with the help of their long-term partnership with IBM Watson health and investment partners like The Launch Place to ensure that hospital pharmacies have the data and automated solutions on hand to ensure they never run out of critical, life-saving drugs.
About Orbital Rx:
OrbitalRX empowers pharmacy leaders with the technology they need to proactively manage their drug supplies. Their drug shortage management platform breaks down data silos and aggregates all pharmacy data into one easy-to-use interface that saves time and mitigates the ongoing impacts of medication shortages.
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