Limerick, Ireland-based clinical trial software startup Teckro has raised a $25 million Series C funding round led by Northpond Ventures as it looks to continue its international expansion efforts.
Teckro develops software that links drugmakers, clinicians and patients involved in clinical trials to access information and track progress from their mobile device. The company utilizes machine-learning to help users answer clinical questions faster and more easily.
The startup’s platform is meant to digitize and modernize the still largely manually and paper-based process of running and managing clinical trials.
Human clinical trials are often the most expensive parts of the drug development process with administrative staff, site monitoring and patient retention all costing millions of dollars on average. These issues have only been compounded with the increasing complexity of therapeutic agents
“Despite all the talk of digital transformation, the actual experience of participating in a clinical trial if you are a doctor, research nurse or patient has changed little in the last 20 years,” Teckro CEO Gary Hughes said in a statement.
“Our vision is to be at the centre of all site and patient interactions in a clinical trial. We are building a new digital infrastructure and toolset for clinical research that makes the conduct of trials simpler, more transparent and more inclusive.”
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.
The company said it has more than doubled the number of clinical trials performed on its platform over the past year and now has 10,000 users across 80 countries.
Other participants in the Series C round include Founders Fund, Sands Capital Ventures and Borealis Ventures. The new financing brings the company’s total funding haul to $43 million.
The company was started in 2015 by the founding team behind Firecrest, a clinical trial technology startup that was sold to pharmaceutical company Icon in 2011.
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