Korean healthcare startup Humanscape gains traction from global big pharmas

Humanscape Chief Executive Officer Stephen Chang [Photo provided by Humanscape]

Global pharmaceutical companies are paying attention to South Korean health-tech company Humanscape, developer of the “rarenote” app that contains information of over 1,000 rare diseases including Cushing’s syndrome, and Niemann-Pick disease.

“The app has become a community for over 38,000 rare disease patients and their families,” Humanscape Chief Executive Officer Stephen Chang told Maeil Business Newspaper in a recent interview. “They share their personal story, medication information, and symptoms.”

Traditionally, rare disease patients had limited access to information about their condition or the development of treatments. They had to rely on disease control agencies, rare disease centers in hospitals, and patient groups for information.

Rarenote, however, has accumulated over 10,000 clinical trial and treatment development data, pipeline stages, and other information, Chang said.

The vast data stored on rarenote has attracted the attention of global pharmaceutical companies that can use it as a core source of information for rare disease drug development. The genetic information of rare disease patients is provided in report form through rarenote, which is valuable for big pharmaceutical companies overseas, Chang said.

Early this year, Humanscape launched a PC solution called “raredata” that allows medical professionals to check patient data in real-time without meeting with them. Samsung Medical Center, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, and Seoul National University Hospital are among the customer facilities currently using the solution.

The company also operates “mmtalk,” an app exclusively for pregnant women.

The app, released in 2020, has attracted over 670,000 pregnant women in Korea and more than 110,000 pregnant women in Indonesia. Pregnant women who have undergone an ultrasound at 326 maternity clinics across Korea can view their own ultrasound images by entering a code they received from their doctor into the mmtalk app.

The app, which is also available in Indonesia, has been adopted by more than 270 local maternity clinics, according to Chang.

The company was authorized to establish a Vietnamese subsidiary in March this year for mmtalk’s overseas business.

“We expect annual sales of around 10 billion won ($7.62 million) this year, up from 3.8 billion won last year, driven by business expansion in Southeast Asia,” Chang said.