Healthtech startup Medable raises $25M funding to drive global adoption of decentralized clinical trials

With research institutions and pharmaceutical companies in a race to develop vaccine to cure the deadly coronavirus, the need to accelerate clinical drug development is more needed than ever. That’s why Medable, a Silicon Valley healthtech startup, is on a mission to reduce clinical trial timelines by 50 percent.

Today, Medable announced it has secured $25 million in venture funding to accelerate clinical drug development with digital technology, enabling effective new therapies to reach patients faster. The round, which was led by early-stage healthcare and AI investor GSR Ventures, brings Medable’s total capital raised to more than $45 million. PPD, Inc. also participated in the round.

Founded in 2012 by Fernando Waigandt, James Sas, Michelle Longmire, and Tim Smith, Medable is transforming healthcare by enabling patient generated data to drive healthcare delivery and clinical research. The company has become a leader in the movement to digitize and virtualize clinical trials. Over the past several years, Medable’s team has built a modular digital platform-as-a-service that streamlines clinical trials with direct-to-patient technologies. The platform is now used by leading biopharma sponsors and clinical research organizations worldwide, and has been used for trials in 30+ countries and 26 languages.

Medable is a service that allows healthcare companies and developers to easily build or extend ‘Medical-Grade’ mobile applications. With full support for clinical applications including communication, collaboration and health data management, as well as full support for Personal Health Information (PHI) including HIPAA-compliant, cloud-based storage, Medable is the first mobile Health platform that is truly ‘Medical-Grade.’

Medable said it will also use the investment to extend product development, partnerships and market adoption for Medable’s decentralized trial platform, which brings together clinical trial participants, clinical research sites, partners and analytics to enable more patient-centric and informed clinical research.

“This is an important milestone for Medable and the industry’s shift to decentralized trials, which are critical to bringing effective therapies to patients faster,” said Dr. Michelle Longmire, CEO and co-founder of Medable. “As we’ve seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional trial processes and timelines are insufficient to meet the global need for clinical research. Decentralized trials can improve access to new therapies and trials for participants, as well as reduce trial timelines.”

“The future of medicine is digital, personalized, data-driven and delivered directly to the patient,” said Dr. Sunny Kumar, partner at GSR Ventures, who joins the Medable board. “Medable has built a diverse and capable team of technology and biopharma experts, and they have built a comprehensive platform that is well-positioned to meet the market need. Clinical trials are clearly ripe for disruption, and Medable brings forward the next generation of clinical trial platform technology to streamline new therapy development.”

Based on its market analysis, GSR Ventures believes decentralized clinical trials can reach a broader, more representative population; speed up recruitment and enrollment; generate more robust data; and be more convenient and accessible for patients. A digital trial infrastructure will also allow for new types of monitoring and analysis, including digital endpoints; integration of wearable devices; and enhanced Phase 4 monitoring of patients after trial endpoints have been reached.

Many of these needs and opportunities are magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has accelerated interest in Medable’s platform over the past 60 days. Prior to the pandemic, decentralized trials were gaining momentum but still considered a “nice to have.” In the current environment, decentralized trials have become a necessity as many clinical sites are shut down or not seeing non-COVID-19 patients—and patients around the world are sheltering in place.