Paradigm Launches $203M Funding Round to Expand Access to Clinical Trials

Technology-powered clinical trial platform Paradigm announced its launch alongside a $203 million Series A funding round jointly led by ARCH Venture Partners and General Catalyst.

F-Prime Capital, LUX Capital, GV, Magnetic Ventures and Mubadala Capital also participated in the round. The American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge Foundation was a strategic investor.

The company also announced the acquisition Deep Lens, a recruitment platform for oncology-focused clinical trials.

Paradigm, conceived by ARCH Venture Partners and jointly incubated by ARCH and General Catalyst, said it is building a platform that aims to streamline the clinical trial process for patients and connect biopharmaceutical trial sponsors and healthcare providers.

Paradigm’s leadership team includes numerous people with a background in the life sciences, including CEO Kent Toelke, former Director of Innovation for Clinical Research Organization ICON and Chief Scientist at PRA Health, a contract research organization acquired by ICON.

Other team members include Milind Kamkolkar as Chief Operating Officer (former Chief Data Officer at French pharmaceutical company Sanofi and Global Head of Data Science and AI at Novartis) and Dr. Katherine Lang as Senior Vice President of Clinical and Medical Solutions (former global head of oncology evidence at Pfizer), among others.

The funds will be used to develop the platform and partner with life sciences companies and healthcare systems.

“Clinical research is ready for a reboot,” said Robert Nelson, co-chairman of the board of directors of Paradigm, co-founder and managing director of ARCH Venture Partners. “Today the system is broken in almost every way – patient access is too narrow, incentives are not aligned, and poor trial design is slowing down development. We saw an opportunity to fundamentally overhaul the system and fix the business model. The Paradigm team has the right expertise to redefine clinical research, and we are committed to supporting them in realizing our shared vision.”

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Other technology-enabled clinical trials companies include a UK-based healthcare digital technology company. Huma, which earlier this month announced it had acquired clinical trial data specialist Alcedis.

The UK-based company said it will set up an advanced clinical trials division using Germany’s Alcedis platform to offer digital health solutions spanning various stages of the development process, from early stage development to Phase 4 decentralized clinical trials.

Another platform in this space is Lokavant, which provides a centralized data repository for managing clinical trials. The company raised $21 million in funding round in December.

Other companies include a patient data collection and clinical trial tech company. uMotif and ASX-listed medical technology company CardieX, which is partnering with AI health technology company Invaryant to conduct collaborative clinical research on maternal health and cardiovascular disease.