This week’s InnovationRx covers the escalating Ebola crisis, the latest Midas List of health investors, Eli Lilly’s vaccine acquisitions, and more. To receive it directly in your inbox, subscribe here.
Health workers leaving the isolation area at Congo’s General Referral Hospital during the Ebola outbreak response.
Getty Images
Less than two weeks after the Africa Center for Disease Control confirmed an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the disease has claimed over 220 lives. The number of infections has surpassed 1,000, with the virus spreading to Uganda. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, stated that the disease is spreading more rapidly than efforts to control it, forcing health workers into a reactive stance. This outbreak might exceed the 2018-2020 outbreak, which was the largest recorded, causing over 2,290 deaths, according to the International Rescue Committee.
Although there are vaccines available for Ebola, they target the Ebola-Zaire strain specifically. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for the current outbreak’s Bundibugyo strain, which has a fatality rate of 32%, similar to smallpox. Oxford scientists are developing a vaccine for this strain, but clinical trials are still months away.
Globally, governments are working to curb the outbreak. In the United States, the CDC is hiring staff for Ebola screening at entry ports. Houston’s Bush International Airport, Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport, and Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport are ready to screen passengers from Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan, the latter of which has not reported any cases but remains vigilant. The Forbes breaking news team is monitoring updates on the epidemic here.
The Midas List 2026
Annie Lamont
Guerin Blask for Forbes
Annually, Forbes ranks the top 100 venture capitalists based on their portfolio company exits to IPO or acquisition and significant increases in private valuations. This year, gains from AI companies propelled 25 new entrants onto the list, making it more challenging for healthcare investors to qualify.
Annie Lamont, cofounder and managing partner of Oak Investment Partners, was the sole VC with a primary Midas deal in healthcare. Her notable success was with insuretech firm Devoted Health, now valued at over $14 billion, according to VC database Pitchbook. (Read our 2024 profile on how Lamont became a health tech powerhouse here.)
Zhen Zhang, founder of Chinese firm Gaorong Capital, achieved major biotech victories in his portfolio: ProfoundBio was acquired by Genmab in April 2024 for $1.8 billion, and precision medicine company Alto Neuroscience went public in February 2024, now boasting a market cap exceeding $700 million.
Other investors with significant healthcare stakes—who made the list for non-health investments—include:
Hemant Taneja, CEO of General Catalyst, whose backing of Anthropic, a company that develops AI tools for healthcare, secured his position on the list.
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, took the top spot this year, having been the first VC to back OpenAI, which recently launched AI products for healthcare. His healthcare deals include insurance platform Loop Health and marketplace Zocdoc.
Neil Shen, founding partner of investment firm HSG, is recognized for his early investment in TikTok’s parent company Bytedance, whose healthcare division has ventured into AI drug discovery, digital health platforms, and funding a Beijing-based “AI native” cancer hospital.
Explore the complete Midas list here.
What $7 Billion Commure Has Planned
Recently, Commure, a provider of AI-driven enterprise software for health systems, achieved a $7 billion valuation. Forbes interviewed CEO Tanay Tandon about their expansion plans to tackle the $1 trillion spent annually on healthcare administration.
Based in Mountain View, California, Commure offers an AI scribe for doctors, practice management tools, and software that automates revenue cycle management, including patient billing and reimbursement processes. It’s utilized by over 500 healthcare organizations, including major systems like Tenet and HCA. The company is experiencing rapid growth: Tandon reports over $200 million in active annual recurring revenue, double last year’s figure. “If we’re proactive, I think we can double again,” he said. “A lot of it is about deploying what we’ve already signed.”
Ambient scribing, which captures patient-doctor conversations and auto-fills health forms, is currently a $600 million market led by Microsoft’s Nuance and venture-backed Abridge (valued at $5.3 billion), controlling nearly two-thirds of the market, according to a report by VC firm Menlo Ventures in October 2025. As competition rises and electronic recordkeeping giant Epic enters the market, prices have decreased. In this challenging market, consolidation is expected. “We’ve seen more interest in mergers and acquisitions from scribing companies [recently] than in the past three years combined,” Tandon shared.
Meanwhile, the focus has shifted from scribing alone to revenue-cycle management, where health systems can experience financial benefits. “My goal is to enhance system profitability,” Tandon explained.
Deal of the Week
Eli Lilly acquired three vaccine developers for nearly $4 billion as part of a significant move into infectious diseases by the $1 trillion market cap pharmaceutical giant, known for its weight-loss drugs. The companies include Curevo, LimmaTech Biologics, and Vaccine Company. Curevo is developing a shingles vaccine that could challenge GSK’s Shingrix. LimmaTech is focused on vaccines for bacterial infections, including Staphylococcus aureus, while Vaccine Company is working on a potential Epstein-Barr virus vaccine. Lilly’s chief scientific and product officer, Daniel Skovronsky, stated that these acquisitions align with their strategy to “prevent disease at its source rather than treat its consequences.” Lilly reported 2025 revenue of $62 billion, a 45% rise from 2024 as sales of Mounjaro and Zepbound surged.
WHAT WE’RE READING
Oura, which last year reached a valuation of $11 billion with its popular smart rings, filed confidentially for an IPO.
In the first five months of Utah’s AI prescribing experiment, startup Doctronic’s AI recommended prescription renewals in 72% of cases, flagging the remaining 28% for a doctor.
Retatrutide, one of Lilly’s experimental obesity drugs, achieved weight loss comparable to bariatric surgery, though with side effects and high discontinuation rates, in a late-stage trial.
A group of biotechs orchestrated a covert campaign to remove FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.
President Trump, approaching 80, is undergoing his annual physical at Walter Reed Hospital. The public remains unsure what details will be disclosed from the exam.
Researchers at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative have developed an open-source atlas featuring over one billion predicted protein structures, potentially offering new insights into disease diagnosis and treatment.
