Nashville-based oncology company Thyme Care continues to draw investors to its cancer care model with a Series E financing round of over $125 million.
Morgan Health led the latest funding round, with participation from Humana and CVS Health Ventures, as well as institutional investors AlleyCorp, HealthQuest Capital, Foresite Capital, Concord Health Partners, Frist Cressey Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, and a16z Bio + Health.
Today, Thyme Care services are available to more than 10.5 million people across all 50 states, and the company manages more than $7 billion in oncology spend. The company says that by aligning care around the patient, the model delivers 5 to 10 percent validated reductions in total cost of care, creating measurable value for patients, providers, and health plan partners. Thyme Carek says it is profitable, generates meaningful positive free cash flow, and is positioned to accelerate its next phase of growth.
In a July 2023 interview with Healthcare Innovation, Bobby Green, M.D., president and chief medical officer at Thyme, discussed the company’s growth. “We built a technology-enabled navigation platform, for both clinicians and non-clinicians to do the virtual navigation on a software and analytics platform,”he said. “We partner with health plans, which see the value in this and are willing to pay for it. We will take some degree of risk on the cost of care of the populations that we're managing. And when we partner with a health plan and go into a geographic area, we also partner with oncology practices that are in line with the vision of doing this."
Alongside the Series E, Thyme Care is establishing Thyme Companies, a newly formed parent entity designed to build a portfolio of new, independent businesses in oncology that address persistent barriers to better cancer care. Thyme said the parent company is positioned to take on oncology's biggest challenges. Areas under active development include accelerating the adoption of lower-cost biosimilars and improving clinical trial accrual, where slow enrollment limits patient access to beneficial trials and slows drug development. The first of these businesses is expected to launch later this year.
To support this next phase of growth, Thyme Care co-founder Robin Shah will serve as executive chairman of Thyme Companies leading the strategy and development of new businesses and working closely with his co-founder Bobby Green, M.D. to bring the connected, patient-first approach that built Thyme Care, to a broader set of healthcare challenges. Thyme Care continues under CEO Brad Diephuis, M.D., with Green as president and chief medical officer.
"When we founded Thyme Care, our vision was never limited to one part of cancer care. We wanted to create a better oncology care system," said Shah in a statement. "Thyme Care showed it could be done, and as we've grown alongside patients, providers and health plans, we've gained a deep perspective on the challenges that get in the way of better care. Thyme Companies is the next step in this journey, enabling us to build new solutions fully informed by what we've learned, while continuing to invest in the core business that made it possible.”