This morning Palo Alto, California-based startup Medable announced a $25 million funding round for its platform that uses digital to help facilitate the clinical trial process. GSR Ventures led the round with participation from PPD Inc. As part of this deal Dr. Sunny Kumar, a partner at GSR Ventures, joined the Medable board. 

This brings the company’s total funding pot to $45 million, according its latest release. 

WHAT THEY DO 

The startup pitches itself as a tool for decentralized clinical trials and can bring together multiple stakeholders, including participants, research sites, partners and analytics. It specializes in helping clinical trials include digital design. It allows researchers to screen and match patients for clinical trials remotely. During the actual trial it is able to help participants and research institutions generate data with a bring-your-own-device model. 

Researchers are also able to use the platform to check on their data in real time and bring up new reports. 

WHAT IT’S FOR 

The new cash infusion is for new product development, partnerships and market adoption. 

“The future of medicine is digital, personalized, data-driven and delivered directly to the patient,” Kumar said in a statement. “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.”

MAREKT SNAPSHOT

When it comes to clinical trials, all eyes have been on digital to take them into the future. Last year some of the biggest names in pharma, including Novartis Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi, announced that they will be employing Verily’s Project Baseline platform in order to increase the number and diversity of the study population by making it easier for participants to enroll and contribute their health data. 

There are also scores of startups working in the space. For example, Florence, maker of software for clinical trials, scored $7.1 million last fall. Another company in the space is Limerick, Ireland-based Tekro, which collects and presents clinical trial data in a mobile platform. It scored $25 million in Series C funding last year. 

ON THE RECORD 

“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,” Dr. Michelle Longmire, CEO and cofounder of Medable, said in a statement. “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.”