Sonde Makes Acquisition in Vocal Biomarker Space

25 August 2020

 PureTech Health plc

PureTech Founded Entity Sonde Health Acquires NeuroLex Labs 

PureTech Health plc (LSE: PRTC) ("PureTech" or the "Company"), a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercialising highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, is pleased to note that its Founded Entity, Sonde Health, has acquired NeuroLex Laboratories, Inc., a leading voice-enabled survey and data acquisition platform. As part of the agreement,  Jim Schwoebel, the chief executive officer of NeuroLex, will join Sonde's leadership team as Vice President, Data and Research. The transaction did not involve any financial participation from PureTech.

The announcement from Sonde Health is below:

Sonde Health Acquires NeuroLex Labs, Creating the Global Leader in Voice Science

BOSTON - August 25, 2020 - Sonde Health, a leading vocal biomarker technology platform that detects health symptoms from a few seconds of voice, today announced it has acquired NeuroLex Laboratories, Inc., a leading voice-enabled survey and data acquisition platform. Jim Schwoebel, the chief executive officer of NeuroLex, will join Sonde's leadership team as Vice President, Data and Research.

The acquisition brings together two of the leading forces in the vocal biomarker space. Sonde will acquire NeuroLex's popular web-enabled voice survey and analysis platform, as well as its rich dataset, which when combined with Sonde's leading voice-based dataset, forms one of the world's preeminent biobanks focused on vocal biomarkers. In addition, merging Sonde's mobile and voice-assistant platforms with NeuroLex's web-based capabilities will enable the delivery of voice-enabled heath detection and monitoring over any platform.

"At Sonde, we have unlocked voice as a new vital sign to enable secure, accessible, and non-intrusive monitoring of health. Incorporating NeuroLex's impressive work in voice-based surveys and research moves us significantly forward in becoming the one-stop shop for health condition detection and monitoring through voice," said David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health. "NeuroLex's voice-based survey platform and biobank will accelerate our research and development, and our collection and analysis of high-quality voice data, bolstering all the products we provide to our customers."

Sonde's proprietary technology works by sensing and analysing subtle changes in the voice due to changes in a person's physiology. The company's respiratory and depression health checks are available today.

"I am thrilled to bring Jim and his team on board," continued Liu. "His experience in building NeuroLex, shared mission of using vocal biomarkers to move healthcare forward, and expertise in building large voice-based datasets and machine learning make Jim a tremendous addition to the Sonde team."

"I'm beyond excited to join Sonde's amazing team and mission," said Jim Schwoebel. "We started NeuroLex to create a voice test to help screen for psychosis and related psychiatric conditions. Together with Sonde, we will expand beyond these conditions to transform the way both physical and mental health are detected and managed to positively impact lives."

About Sonde Health

Leveraging 300,000 voice samples from over 50,000 individuals, Sonde Health's proprietary voice-based technology platform detects symptoms of health conditions - like depression and respiratory disease -- from changes in voice. Using machine learning, Sonde senses and analyses subtle vocal changes due to changes in a person's physiology to provide early health detection and monitoring.

Sonde One, its health screening app, uses vocal biometrics to help employers comply with government mandates and return to work safely. Sonde also has broad intellectual property coverage worldwide and licenses its technology through its API platform. www.sondehealth.com

About NeuroLex Laboratories

NeuroLex Laboratories is a pioneering digital health company applying speech analysis techniques to detect various health conditions early, before full-blown symptoms occur. Over the past two years, NeuroLex has built one of the largest laboratories in the world to collect, label, and model voice data tagged with health conditions comprised of over 40 research fellows across 12 universities that have published over 5 peer-reviewed journal articles. NeuroLex's core product, SurveyLex, makes it easy to create and distribute voice surveys in less than a minute as URL links through web browsers. With this product, NeuroLex has curated a biobank comprised of over 500,000 voice samples from over 30,000 individuals alongside a host of pharmaceutical and academic partners. 

About PureTech Health

PureTech is a clinical-stage biotherapeutics company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercialising highly differentiated medicines for devastating diseases, including intractable cancers, lymphatic and gastrointestinal diseases, central nervous system disorders and inflammatory and immunological diseases, among others. The Company has created a broad and deep pipeline through the expertise of its experienced research and development team and its extensive network of scientists, clinicians and industry leaders. This pipeline, which is being advanced both internally and through PureTech's Founded Entities, is comprised of 24 products and product candidates, including two that have been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). All of the underlying programmes and platforms that resulted in this pipeline of product candidates were initially identified or discovered and then advanced by the PureTech team through key validation points based on the Company's unique insights into the biology of the brain, immune and gut, or BIG, systems and the interface between those systems, referred to as the BIG Axis.

For more information, visit www.puretechhealth.com or connect with us on Twitter @puretechh.

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