DecisionView lands financing to optimize clinical trials
DecisionView, developer of software applications that streamline the clinical trials process for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, announced today that it closed a fourth-round of funding earmarked for product development — including additional work on its top offering, the StudyOptimizer.
The San Francisco-based company claims that the StudyOptimizer is the first web-based application for clinical trial enrollment, a cumbersome process that can sometimes stall drugs and devices for months, if not indefinitely. In facilitating the recruitment of study participants, the software minimizes the overall duration of trials, saving companies a significant amount of money. And right now is an opportune time to help the biotech industry cut costs, as it has been hit especially hard by the flagging economy and frozen IPO market. StudyOptimizer 4.0 was recently released, touting a sleeker interface and greater scalability.
Other DecisionView products also ease the enrollment phase of clinical trials, helping researchers combine predictive analytics, massive amounts of diagnostic data and results of various simulations in meaningful and productive ways. One of the biggest challenges in this setting is to predict how and where trials are most likely to get off the ground based on recruitment statistics. DecisionView says its solutions should help revolutionize how this is done. For example, the information its applications aggregate can show which trial sites have the most success in recruitment — alternatively, which sites require more training in the enrollment process, and which are promising yet untapped.
A sign of success: DecisionView already counts GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth among its customers. Several other software firms are playing in the same space without competing directly. Xcalibur, for instance, has developed applications for checking trial participants’ eligibility. Triformis Clinical, a company that also aimed to optimize enrollment systems back in 2005, has since gone under.
DecisionView last raised funds in July 2007, amounting to $7 million, from firstVentury, Partech International and Granite Ventures. The recent round came from Adobe Ventures and Aeris Capital, in addition to Granite.
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About the Author, Camille Ricketts
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