Nashville Company Battling Opioid Addictions Raises $8 Million

180 Health Partners, a Nashville-based behavioral health company battling the opioid epidemic, has raised $8 million to fund its expansion and help mothers and newborns in more states.

180 Health Partners, led by CEO Justin Lanning, provides access to medical and behavioral health care to pregnant mothers struggling with opioid use and helps them give birth to healthy babies.

The latest financing round was led by New York-based Spring Mountain Capital and included existing investors Frist Cressey Ventures, Resolute Venture Partners and Altitude Ventures.

“180 Health Partners is providing an essential solution to this difficult-to-serve population,” said Jamie Weston, managing director at Spring Mountain Capital. “They have developed a care model addressing an unmet need that is enthusiastically embraced by patients, providers and insurance plans.”

The opioid crisis has unfolded nationally, with about 2 million people suffering from substance use disorders related to opioid use in 2015, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In Tennessee, 1,186 people died of opioid overdose deaths in 2016, an average of more than three per day, according to state data.

As the problem has increased, the rates of neonatal abstinence syndrome, a post-natal condition affecting newborns exposed to opioids during pregnancy, have also risen. The condition causes infants to experience painful withdrawal symptoms, including central nervous and gastrointestinal issues and long-term behavioral and medical risks, according to 180 Health Partners.

180 Health Partners, which has been serving Tennessee patients, provides opioid-dependent mothers with a peer advocate, an addiction counselor, a social worker, a nurse, and a resource advocate to help reduce the incidence, severity and cost of opioid dependent births, according to the company.

“By providing comprehensive care to opioid-dependent expecting mothers, with each patient we touch, we not only change one life but two," said former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, M.D., who serves on the 180 Health Partners board. "This funding will provide widespread access to the program, giving us the ability to impact many more lives.”

https://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2018/03/18/nashville-company-battling-opioid-addictions-raises-8-million/434924002/