Vial secures $67m in funding for biotech-focused CRO
The capital raise was part of a Series B funding round led by General Catalyst, and means that the contract research organization (CRO) has now secured over $100m (€95m) in financing since launching in 2020.
The company is based out of San Francisco, US, and was co-founded by Simon Burns, CEO, and Andrew Brackin, CFO.
Neither had experience in contract researching nor the life sciences industry prior to creating Vial, but had entered the space in an effort to address “the problem of slow and expensive clinical trials that do not deliver the outcome sponsors are looking for,” the company’s website outlines.
The CRO plans to do this through its technology platform, which comprises three components: site startup platform, eSource platform, and patient recruiting platform.
Vial outlines that its site startup platform is able to start a trial all online; its eSource platform is a paperless system that captures all data digitally; and, the patient recruiting platform uses multi-channel marketing strategies and a features a prescreening process.
According to the company, the technology is able to integrate trial on-boarding, patient enrollment, site communication, and data collection processes into one connected system. As a result, Vial states that it can reduce the cost of clinical trials for biotech companies by more than 50%.
As part of its package, Vial offers flat-rate pricing, where it guarantees a set budget for the entirety of a project, regardless of the time and expense that accrues.
Lead investor in the financing round, General Catalyst announced in July 2022 that it had closed a $670m Health Assurance Fund II, which it planned to invest in companies that would focus on digital transformation of the healthcare industry. In particular, the venture capital firm was looking to invest to create a system that is value-orientated, providing equity and affordability.
“The transformation that we are seeing happen across healthcare has been slow to come to clinical trials. We are thrilled to partner with the Vial team on their mission to reimagine clinical trials,” stated Hemant Taneja, Vial board member and CEO, and MD at General Catalyst.
Vial currently offers its CRO services across oncology, dermatology, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, neurology, and cardiology. The CRO has stated that it wants to operate across all therapeutic areas in the future.
