Antidote raises $11M in funding round led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
Funding will enable Antidote to accelerate the development of its trial matching platform and reach millions more patients in need of new and better treatments.
Antidote Technologies, the clinical trial matching platform that currently reaches millions of patients in more than 180 online communities, has entered into an agreement for an $11M funding round led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund (GHI), joined by existing investors Smedvig Capital and Octopus Ventures, conditional upon certain regulatory clearances being obtained, and is expected be finalized later this year. This new round of funding, which brings the total investment in Antidote to date up to $26 million, will accelerate the development of new capabilities for its trial matching platform, including precision medicine and EHR-matching, as well as further global expansion.
Eighty percent of clinical trials are delayed or closed due to a lack of patients taking part. Antidote is a digital health company on a mission to solve this critical problem by transforming the way patients and researchers connect. With clinical and AI expertise, Antidote has created Match, a clinical trial matching platform that now serves more than 180 leading patient communities such as JDRF, Lung Cancer Alliance and Healthline—bringing new studies to millions of patients every month. Patients answer simple questions about their health, and the platform provides matching studies in their neighborhood.
“We are excited to back Antidote given the company’s focus on solving the critical issue of matching patients with the right clinical trials,” said Francesca Wuttke, Managing Director at Merck GHI. “We think the Antidote approach fits well with our focus on investing in companies that play a critical role in the new digital clinical trial management ecosystem.”
Antidote Match is based on generating structured eligibility criteria, proprietary algorithms, and machine learning. To date, the company has made 14,000 clinical trials matchable and plans to reach full coverage of U.S. trials next year with enhanced capabilities, such as matching cancer patients to studies using mutation-level data. Notably, the company is already a participant in the Cancer Moonshot project.
“We are looking to unleash progress by backing entrepreneurs who dare to go big and create change,” said Malcolm Ferguson, Principal at Octopus Ventures. “We have had the privilege of working with Pablo Graiver and the Antidote team since 2013, and we’ve seen the business evolve into a leading player in the clinical trial patient recruitment space through their innovative platform technology. We are excited to have Merck GHI join us on this journey, and we are happy to continue to support Antidote in this next phase of growth.”
This year, Antidote has made its clinical trial matching platform accessible to the pharmaceutical industry with Match APITM, a web and mobile app layer that allows any organization to match patients to their portfolio or program of trials and build insights. The company is also piloting Antidote Base (Beta), a SaaS offering that enables research sites to invite local, engaged patients to participate in their studies.
“Since its last round of funding, Antidote has successfully implemented its platform and grown significantly in the U.K. and the U.S.,” said Jordan Mayo, Advisor and member of the Investment Committee at Smedvig Capital. “We are confident the company will continue to expand, providing benefit to trial sponsors, patient organizations, and patients alike.”
“We couldn't wish for a better endorsement of Antidote’s high-scale ecosystem approach to patient engagement than this round led by Merck GHI, a fund that has a deep understanding of the problem we are solving,” said Pablo Graiver, Founder and CEO of Antidote. “We are also grateful for the continued support from Octopus Ventures and Smedvig Capital. Antidote is excited to embark on the next stage of transforming medical research to deliver new treatments faster to the people who need them.”
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