Exclusive: PhaseV corrals $15M to optimize clinical trials

PhaseV, a Tel Aviv-based company that uses machine learning to optimize clinical trial design, raised $15 million in funding, CEO Raviv Pryluk tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: The average cost of developing a single new drug was $2.3 billion in 2022, with an average seven-year deployment time and oftentimes low success rates.

Details: Viola Ventures and Exor Ventures led the round, which also included participation from LionBird and a group of angel investors.

• The $15 million is a combination of a $9 million seed round, followed by an additional $6 million in SAFE notes, Pryluk says.

How it works: Pharmaceutical and life sciences customers use PhaseV's platform to design and execute adaptive clinical trials, both for new drugs and to trial existing drugs for new conditions.

• Using machine learning, PhaseV's platform helps detect hidden signals in clinical trial data, and it evaluates endpoints and subpopulations to redefine the success or failure of a trial.
• The company's approach has proved valuable in a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, endocrinology, autoimmune diseases, rare diseases and more.

What's next: PhaseV plans to expand more to the U.S. market and hire more in the U.S.

• The funding is designed to last at least three years, though PhaseV could look to raise a Series A in two, Pryluk says.
• The company is not profitable — nor is it seeking that milestone in the near term, the executive says. While PhaseV is generating revenue, Pryluk declined to disclose financials.

What they're saying: "Over the last decade, new technologies have disrupted the way drugs are discovered, but unfortunately the drug development and clinical trial process has largely lagged behind," says Zvika Orron, general partner at Viola Ventures.

• "With precision medicine widely acknowledged as the next frontier, drug development stands to gain tremendously from personalized technology capabilities that have proven successful in other industries," Orron adds.

State of play: Startups have for years leveraged machine learning and AI in the quest to create better medicines, for efficiency and cost control.

• Tel Aviv-based QuantHealth collected $15 million in Series A funding in August.
• Genesis Therapeutics, a San Francisco-based company, raised $200 million in a Series B funding round led by an unnamed investor along with Andreessen Horowitz in August.
• London startup Causaly raised a $60 million Series B in July.
• Go deeper.

Reality check: In the last two years, the first few molecules created by artificial intelligence have failed trials or been deprioritized, EndPoints News reported last week.

The bottom line: "You shouldn't wait to fail to make the most of your data," Pryluk says.