Adherium, a Melbourne, Australia-based connected inhaler company, has raised $5.9 million ($8 million Australian) through a private placement of shares with Fidelity. Adherium is publicly traded in Australia. Under the deal, Fidelity will purchase 16 million shares at $0.50 Australian per share, bringing the global asset manager's share in the company to 10 percent.

“Fidelity International are one of the world’s leading investment institutions," Garth Sutherland, Group CEO of Adherium, said in a statement. "This investment demonstrates Adherium’s growing international profile and reflects the strong confidence widely held in the international markets of our company’s global opportunities and the increasing scope of our technology.”

Adherium's Smartinhaler sends data on when medication was taken to mobile devices and desktop computers via Bluetooth. The platform is designed to help patients, caregivers, and physicians remotely monitor and manage patients’ adherence to their medication. The devices have both a CE Mark and FDA 510(k) clearance. In trials conducted by the company, the inhaler sensor was shown to improve adherence by up to 59 percent in adults and 180 percent in children with asthma.

The company IPO'd in August 2015 at $25.6 million ($35 million AU). About $3 million of that came from AstraZeneca, who the company also began working with on an adherence program for patients with asthma and COPD.

Earlier this year, the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ) announced plans to launch a multi-country clinical study, called Novel START, using Adherium’s connected inhalers. In addition to New Zealand, other study sites will be in Australia, the United Kingdom, and Italy.