Humedica Inc., a privately held Boston-based health IT firm, has been acquired by health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc.(NYSE: UNH), two sources familiar with the deal confirmed Friday.
The deal is valued in the hundreds of millions, according to one source, and represents a significant payday for a large consortium of local venture investors including Bain Capital Ventures, North Bridge Venture Partners and General Catalyst Partners. Boston investment bank Leerink Swann and the Kraft Group, a consortium of businesses including a private equity arm as well as the New England Patriots, also are investors in Humedica.
Calls to Humedica were not returned. A call to UnitedHealth’s health IT operation, Optum, was not returned.
The company, which has raised at least $63 million and was incubated at Leerink Swann before its 2009 launch, produces health analytics tools for hospitals, physician practices and life sciences companies that aggregate raw health data. The company has not publicly disclosed its number of employees.
Humedica’s products include Humedica MinedShare, a platform that enables clinical, operational, and financial benchmarking across the continuum of care and Humedica MinedStream, a real-time predictive clinical surveillance system that identifies high-risk and high-cost patients.
The company’s customers include pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, medical device manufacturers, government agencies, and financial services firms. Humedica recently announced a strategic alliance with drug giant Pfizer inc. (NYSE: PFE) to leverage the local company’s expertise at gathering de-identified patient data to drive development of more effective drugs.
UnitedHealth Group has a rich history of acquiring Massachusetts-based health IT companies. Humedica is the seventh local company bought by the insurer’s health IT unit, Optum, in as many years. Prior to the Humedica deal, Optum, then called Ingenix,purchased Wakefield-based Picis in July 2010.
News of the Humedica purchase, which sources say closed last week, coincides with UnitedHealth Group’s announcement that it will join with the Mayo Clinic to launch Optum Labs, a dedicated health IT research unit in Cambridge. A local health care source said Humedica’s IT solutions would be used to help power research at the lab.