Startups

Seeker Health uses social media advertising to support clinical trial recruitment for cancer, rare diseases

The healthcare startup uses ads on Facebook and Google to target suitable participants and is one of several businesses seeking to make clinical trial recruitment less costly and complex.

Paper made silhouettes with one of them of orange color to stand out from the rest

“Clinical trial enrollment is where biopharma companies really struggle,” said   Sandra Shpilberg, Seeker Health founder and CEO. And she would know. Shpilberg used to work in the biopharma industry, most recently as vice president of strategic marketing and communications with Nora Therapeutics.

She was working on a project with Nora Therapuetics when she witnessed firsthand the challenges of contracting a third party to advertise clinical trials. The agency she collaborated with on the project had a tough time balancing the need to make the pre-screen blinded but effective in determining what candidates could move forward without betraying the inclusion data. That’s when Shpilberg decided to start her own business to address the complexities of clinical trial recruitment.

Seeker Health’s focus is clinical trials evaluating treatments for cancer and rare diseases. The startup uses ads on Facebook and Google to target suitable participants. It uses Google AdWords to “buy” search terms and words associated with the condition the clinical trial is targetting. From there, people interested in the trial are directed to a website which includes a voluntary pre-screen form for patients. Biopharma companies have access to Seeker Health’s portal where they can securely access data for patient screening and enrollment and biopharma companies can access summary views tracking the campaign’s progress. All materials receive IRB approval prior to being used, according to Shpilberg.

Earlier this month, Seeker Health launched version 2.0 of its portal.The update includes a more modern user interface. It is also intended to improve the automation of information that meets IRB requirements. A third part of the update is aimed at doing a better job of processing referrals in the seven different languages the company’s software supports — English, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, German, and Hungarian.

She noted that what sets her startup apart from other companies trying to improve clinical recruitment is Seeker Health focuses on trials first then getting people for them.

“Most patients don’t know where to look for clinical trials. We find clinical trials that need patients and then find the patients.”

The clinical trial software startup targets small to medium sized biopharma companies. It also works with contract research organizations and medical advertising and communication businesses. Seeker’s business model involves a setup fee plus a monthly subscription fee depending on how long the campaign is. Last year Seeker Health supported 22 clinical trials. This year, Shpilberg hopes to double that amount.

Several entrepreneurs have developed ways to make clinical trials more efficient.

StudyKik, for example, focuses on clinical trials related to common conditions, based on postcode, distance and indication. VitalTrax developed PatientWing to help individuals find clinical trials based on their condition and location but also has an electronic clinical outcomes assessment tool and analytics component.

Enzyme, also founded by people with a background in the biopharma industry, seeks to help companies navigate the FDA regulatory process and create a renewable information resource. It streamlines the documentation with a modern information management system so companies can spend less time on documentation and it just received investment from Rock Health as part of a $1.85 million seed round with Refactor Capital, Data Collective, and Soma Capital.

But there’s also been some consolidation in this sector. Last year, Bracket acquired mProve Health, a pioneer of making it easier for clinical trial participants to use their own devices to transmit data to principal investigators,  to broaden its product offer.

Photo: FotografiaBasica, Getty Images

 

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