CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pi Health, an oncology-focused health technology and clinical research company committed to transforming global access to innovative medicines and clinical trials, today announced over $30M in Series A funding. Pi Health, which incubated as a subsidiary of BeiGene, Ltd. (NASDAQ: BGNE) three years ago, completed its fundraise to launch as an independent company. The round was led by AlleyCorp and Obvious Ventures, with additional investments from Invus Capital and leaders in oncology from across the globe.
Cancer is one of the most democratic illnesses out there — it does not care who you are, what you look like, or where you’re from; however, the clinical trial system is anything but democratic. Less than 8% of eligible cancer patients participate in clinical studies, which drastically limits our understanding of the disease and the ways in which it affects a diverse range of populations. Pi Health’s platform rapidly increases patient enrollment around the globe by integrating software into a growing international network of clinical trial sites across four continents to empower life sciences companies to develop medicines. This not only reaches a more diverse patient population, faster, but it also significantly reduces provider friction and biopharma costs through the process.
“We’ve created an entirely new infrastructure for the clinical trial process, which has become mired in inefficiencies that impede progress,” said co-founder and CEO Geoffrey Kim, M.D., who was formerly the Deputy Director of the Oncology Center of Excellence at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). “We have the technology, the team, and the global reach to make a genuine impact on the lives of people with cancer, along with other serious, life-threatening and rare diseases."
While hundreds of SaaS solutions have entered the market, none are comprehensive. As a result, the system’s infrastructure has devolved into a sea of point-solutions with unnecessary software silos and convoluted workflows. Furthermore, none were built to seamlessly collect the type and quality of data the FDA requires companies to submit to get their drugs approved.
“Today’s clinical trials infrastructure is a maze of Excel spreadsheets, paper binders and manual data entry into various point-solutions. Many companies have tried to solve this clinical trials conundrum. None has taken the bold, comprehensive and global approach that Pi Health has,” said Brenton Fargnoli, M.D., General Partner at AlleyCorp. “I’ve known the founding team over the past decade, and am highly confident this is the team to do it.”
Pi Health has built FICS (short for “Front-End Interoperable Capture Software”), a single-solution software that connects life science sponsors and trial sites. For FICS users, gone are the days of missing data or manually trying to square peg-round hole data. Instead, FICS automates manual processes for faster, higher-quality data collection and captures “finish-line data” from the start. By design, this unlocks unprecedented speed and cost savings in the drug development process, ultimately delivering life-saving medicines to patients sooner.
Furthermore, the software has the potential to dramatically mitigate administrative burdens and speed up clinical trial processes, through its implementation of generative AI in features such as automation of clinical documentation, patient matching, data transformations and adverse event monitoring. The team has ensured this technology is relevant, resonant, and usable across the globe, as anything less would continue to maintain an undemocratic status quo for a democratic disease.
“With Pi Health's AI-driven platform, we believe that the entire clinical trial system will be revolutionized for the better,” said Vishal Vasishth, Co-founder & Managing Director of Obvious Ventures. “Pi Health has the potential to bring life-saving drugs and treatments to market faster and more efficiently, ultimately saving countless lives in the process. We're proud to support Pi Health in their efforts to bring hope and healing to patients around the world.”
The Series A funding will support expansion of Pi Health's partnerships with global trial sites and life sciences companies, along with further development of its FICS technology.
About Pi Health
Pi Health is an oncology clinical trial and research technology company committed to transforming global access to innovative medicines. Founded in 2021, the team is focused on empowering life science companies to develop medicines faster and reach diverse patient populations via their clinical trial platform. The organization’s health system partnerships include oncology centers across the US, Brazil, Australia and India, as well as a new cancer hospital in Hyderabad, India, which embodies Pi Health’s mission to bring modern, efficient and equitable trials to populations worldwide. To learn more, please visit pihealth.ai
