Israel-based DreaMed Diabetes announced this week that it has raised $3.3 million from Norma Investments, Russian businessman Roman Abramovich and one other unnamed angel.

The funds will mainly be used for further development of DreaMed’s Advisor, the company's decision support software that can be licensed and embedded into partners' diabetes management platforms.

For example, in February, the company announced a partnership with Palo Alto, California-based Glooko – which makes diabetes management support platforms – to commercialize Advisor. Glooko’s diabetes platform enables an insulin-dependent person to download and visualize data from their diabetes device using their mobile phone, in turn making their data available to clinicians via a secure cloud. 

The Advisor algorithm (which is not FDA cleared, but has been submitted for clearance) works by determining the optimal insulin treatment plan specific to each patient using event-driven machine learning and fuzzy logic technology to process multiple personalized parameters. With the integration of Advisor, insulin pump data can be assessed for patterns that yield personalized recommendations for critical pump-related settings, including basal rates and insulin-to-carb ratios. 

DreaMed, which was founded in 2014, also offers GlucoSitter, a closed-loop insulin therapy software that has been licensed to Medtronic for its artificial pancreas systems.

"People with diabetes struggle on a daily basis to optimize their insulin therapy on their own or with the advice of their diabetes care team. DreaMed Advisor is designed to offer the physician, as well as the patient, a cloud-based decision support tool delivered at the speed of life,” said DreaMed Diabetes CCO Steve Bubrick in a statement. “With the funds raised, we plan to broaden the Advisor platform's application for the use of physicians and people with diabetes who rely on multiple daily injections, as well as insulin pump users."

Earlier this year, the company received a $3.4 million grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Award for the Type 1 Diabetes Decision Support Initiative. With this funding, DreaMed was able to ramp up its clinical testing of Advisor in collaboration with Glooko. Under the leadership of the nextDREAMconsortium (Medtronic is a partner) the six-month study will begin later this year in Israel, and will generate preliminary data on the safety, reliability and efficacy of Advisor for Type 1 diabetes patients who use insulin pumps.

"DreaMed has harnessed years of clinical expertise and patient specific insights to develop algorithms designed to deliver real time optimal patient specific insulin treatment plans," said Eran Atlas, CEO of DreaMed Diabetes in a statement. “We have successfully attracted partnerships and investments from leaders in diabetes healthcare to further our mission of creating easy-to-use and intelligent systems that are actionable for patients, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies and payers. The new investment will further bolster our leadership position in this area.”