harm-reduction
(7)
Imperial Brands PLC
The smallest global tobacco major is trying to turn an apparent disadvantage into a strategy - defend five profitable cigarette markets, build three smoke-free categories, and move faster than the giants around it.
Ria Health
Ria Health is a San Francisco-based telehealth company that treats alcohol use disorder entirely online. Founded in 2015 by addiction physician Dr. John Mendelson, it combines FDA-approved anti-craving medications (including naltrexone and The Sinclair Method), recovery coaching, digital progress tracking and a smartphone breathalyzer into a physician-managed program available in all 50 states. Ria treats drinking as a medical condition rather than a moral failing, offering flexible goals from moderation to abstinence, with care reimbursed by major insurers.
WONZ Technology
WONZ Technology is a digital health company built around one goal: helping the world's roughly 1.5 billion smokers cut their exposure to the harmful byproducts of combustion. Founded by Xin (Steven) Du in 2020, WONZ pairs hardware - heat-not-burn smart devices sold under the CIGPAL brand - with digital intervention software, an exhaled-CO tester, and AI-guided coaching. Its proprietary WHC (WONZ Heat Currents) thermal distillation technology is designed to reduce inhalation of more than 90% of the main harmful substances in cigarette smoke while easing cravings and withdrawal. The company holds over 100 patents and has raised more than US$13 million from investors including XVC.
DopaGE
DopaGE is a Los Angeles-area health education company that trains young adults to prevent, recognize, and respond to drug overdoses through gamified, neuroscience-informed online courses. Built by physicians, neuroscientists, and emergency medical personnel and grown out of the student non-profit T.A.C.O., DopaGE sells annual subscriptions to colleges and offers family training so students can learn life-saving skills - fentanyl awareness, naloxone use, and overdose response - in a format they actually want to complete.
Pascal Metrics
Pascal Metrics is a Washington, DC and Austin-based healthcare data analytics company that turns real-time electronic health record data into clinically validated adverse-event outcomes. As a U.S.-certified Patient Safety Organization (PSO #0047), it operates the Pascal Platform - anchored by trigger-based surveillance and machine-learning models - to help hospitals and health systems detect, predict, and reduce preventable patient harm. Founded in 2007 and named after Blaise Pascal, the 'founder of risk management,' the company claims one of the largest validated adverse-event outcomes datasets in the world.
Lucy
Lucy (Lucy Goods Inc.) is a Los Angeles-based consumer products company building tobacco-free nicotine products for adults - nicotine gum, pouches, lozenges, and its capsule-popping Breakers pouches. Founded in 2016 by three former Soylent executives, Lucy treats nicotine as a product-design and manufacturing problem rather than a tobacco one, aiming to give adult nicotine users a better-tasting, better-engineered alternative to cigarettes and dip. The company sells primarily direct-to-consumer online and in retail, and pursues FDA authorization for its products with its stated mission of reducing nicotine-related harm.
Ophelia
Ophelia is a New York-based telehealth company making evidence-based opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment available from home. It connects people to licensed clinicians for medication-assisted treatment (buprenorphine/Suboxone), with video visits, on-demand messaging, and care coordination, deliberately removing the friction and stigma of traditional rehab. Founded in 2019 by Zack Gray after he lost a loved one to an overdose, Ophelia focuses heavily on Medicaid and rural populations and has raised roughly $68 million, including a $50M Series B led by Tiger Global in 2021.