Launched to much fanfare two months ago, Driver – a firm whose goal was to connect cancer patients with treatments and clinical trials – is shutting down.
STAT reported Monday that the firm was closing shop due to lack of money. The San Francisco- and Shanghai-based company debuted Sept. 6, having raised $90 million in seed funding, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka Shing’s Horizon Ventures as lead investor and a network of more than 30 of the world’s largest cancer hospitals. The platform consisted of two components: molecular pathology laboratories in the United States and China and a mobile app through which patients could join and submit medical records and tumor samples that would then be used to connect them to clinical trials and existing treatments.
While he would not reveal the company’s burn rate, co-founder and CEO William Polkinghorn blamed overstretch for its failure. “One of the biggest things we got wrong is, we tried to do too much,” he said in a phone interview with MedCity News.
However, he emphasized the novelty of Driver’s business model, adding that there are two kinds of companies: those that create better solutions for existing problems, and those that attempt to create first-in-kind solutions. “I hope what came across was an ambitious, authentic, contrarian attempt to solve a problem that the best centers in the US have not solved.” Polkinghorn said he is currently working with Driver’s board of directors and investors to find out what to do with the company’s technology in order to capture its value.
In addition to trying to do too much – Driver ran apps for doctors and patients in both the US and China in addition to the two pathology labs – the company did not see much traction, with Polkinghorn estimating that the number of sign-ups was in the single digits. He said that the high cost of the service – a $3,000 initial sign-up fee, followed by $20 per month – “definitely played a role” in the low numbers.
When it launched, the firm had set up relationships with leading US cancer centers such as the National Cancer Institute, Cleveland Clinic, City of Hope, Mayo Clinic and Massachusetts General Hospital, along with the National Cancer Center of Singapore, the Chinese National Cancer Center.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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