Clinical trials infrastructure tech: State of play
Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Last updated Sept. 19, 2023
The venture-backed clinical trials infrastructure space is gaining traction, fueled by the FDA's guidance around diversity and increased awareness about the limitations of current medical research.
Why it matters: The clinical trials landscape is dominated by a few expensive and slow-moving studies run largely by elite, hard-to-access academic medical centers.
The pandemic highlighted areas of inefficiencies in the clinical trials space, and activity in the post-pandemic market has been driven by increased calls for better representation.
- The estimated $16 billion U.S. clinical trial site market is expected to grow at 6.8% CAGR through 2025, according to research by Harris Williams.
Recent investments in the clinical trials space include:
- Mural Health Technologies, a Berwyn, Penn.-based clinical trial facilitator, raised $8 million in seed funding in September.
- Clinetic, a Durham, N.C.-based health tech company focused on patient recruitment and clinical research, closed a Series A round led by Sopris Capital.
- Lindus Health, a London-based clinical trials startup, raised $18 million in Series A funding in August.
- Boston-based Beaconcure, a clinical data technology company, closed a $14 million Series B round in June.
- Macro Trials, focused on helping to speed the development of high-value therapeutics, in June raised a $6 million seed round.
- Inato, a French technology platform that connects companies with community-based trial sites raised $20 million in Series A2 funding in March.
- Faro Health, a San Diego, Calif.-based software company that helps researchers design clinical trials, raised $20 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst in February.
- Paradigm, a New York-based clinical trial tech platform collected $203 million in Series A funding and acquired an oncology patient recruitment startup called Deep Lens in January.
- SubjectWell, an Austin, Texas-based patient recruitment platform for clinical trials, raised $35 million in Series B funding in October.
- Power, a startup developing user-friendly search tools to help people more easily find open trials, last August collected $7 million in seed funds.
- Reify Health, a Boston-based software company focused in the clinical trial ecosystem, raised $220 million in Series D funding in April 2022.
- Topography Health, which provides community physicians with a plug-and-play trials platform, last January landed $21.5 million in Series A capital.
Other developments in the clinical trials infrastructure space include:
- Headlands Research, a network of clinical trial sites, acquired research center AMCR Institute in July.
- The IMA Group, a clinical evaluation provider, in January acquired research company Clinical Trials of America.
- QHP Capital, the management company for NovaQuest Private Equity, in October 2022 acquired AutoCruitment, a digital patient recruiter for clinical research.
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