In its fourth fundraise in the past two years, decentralized clinical trials startup Medable raised $304 million. The round was co-led by Blackstone Growth, Tiger Global, and returning investor GSR Ventures.
The company has now raised a total of $521 million to date, giving it a $2.1 billion valuation. It plans to invest the funds into remote patient monitoring and other tools for decentralized research, and expanding its global operations.
“This is a transformative opportunity for the life sciences industry,” former Pfizer CEO and Blackstone senior advisor Jeff Kindler said in a news release. “Slow and expensive clinical trials are a major bottleneck in drug development. By investing in the right technology and process improvements, we can make major strides in getting more treatments to patients faster, while still ensuring safety and efficacy.”
The Palo Alto-based startup’s software makes it easier for drugmakers to virtually consent patients into trials, offer telehealth visits and incorporate data from remote monitoring devices. To date, it has run a total of 150 clinical trials on its platform, claiming that it can enroll patients twice as fast and improve retention.
Medable is led by CEO Dr. Michelle Longmire, a Stanford-trained dermatologist. As a postdoc, she had been researching twins with a rare autoimmune condition called systemic sclerosis, and realized she needed a better way to bring in data from their daily lives. Her experience led her to co-found the company in 2012.
At the time, the industry had been slow to turn to decentralized clinical trials, but that changed swiftly with the Covid-19 pandemic. Many ongoing trials were put on hold as patients were unable to go into the office for in-person visits, while some were able to go virtual.
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.
“Decentralized trial technologies have been critical to drug development during the pandemic, providing global remote access and supporting COVID vaccine and therapeutic research at record speed,” Longmire said in a news release. “Patients need the life sciences industry to continue innovating at this pace. By working at the intersection of speed, safety and science, we believe we can meaningfully reduce the barriers to drug development – and ultimately, enable more effective therapies for people all over the world.”
In the last two years, Medable has grown swiftly. Its competitors, including Science 37 and Curebase, are also riding the wave.
Earlier this year, Curebase raised $15 million in funding, while Science 37 recently joined the public markets after merging with a special-purpose acquisition company.
Photo credit: sdecoret, Getty Images
