36氪 was informed that the clinical research SaaS platform “Yaocheng Health Technology” recently completed tens of millions of US dollars in A+ round of financing. This round was led by Hankang Capital (the original seed round and A round investors), and Boston Investment (B Capital) followed. cast. China Renaissance served as the exclusive financial advisor for this round of financing.
Aurora Health Technology (Aurora) was established in August 2020, founded and served as CEO by Chen Xiao, former president of Google Shanghai Research Institute and former general manager of Verily China. The current team size is nearly 100 people, mainly including the product R&D team, covering from preliminary research, product design, interaction design, technology development, testing and operation and maintenance; Covance), IQVIA and other well-known CRO companies lead the business backbone to provide clinical medical insights and after-sales support services required for development; the marketing team, led by the former Medidata Asia-Pacific channel sales leader, is responsible for business development.
In the R&D system of innovative pharmaceutical devices, R&D investment including preclinical research, clinical trials, and real-world research accounts for the highest proportion. How to use automated and intelligent tools to help clinical research under the premise of data security and compliance Multi-role players achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement and improve data quality in each link? In response to this rigid need, empowering users with information technology to verify the safety and effectiveness of medical devices more efficiently has become the goal pursued by Yaocheng Health Technology.
Integrated clinical research digital solution
“Many members of the team have experienced a large system of international multi-center clinical trials. They understand that from the earliest clinical program design to the final report, it must be a coherent process.” Chen Xiao introduced, so since the beginning of the business Cheng Health Technology starts from the underlying architecture, with the Clinical Logic Engine as the core, and under the premise of compliance, gradually builds the flow, precipitation and application of full-link data in the clinical trial stage.
After more than two years of development, Yaocheng Health Technology’s product matrix is gradually improving. Its first products are data collection and supporting database building functions. In terms of database building for clinical trials, (Prime Construct) uses digital means to transform the time-consuming and labor-intensive link of building a database into a process that can automatically generate visit procedures and forms based on the test plan, and automatically generate logical verification and verification based on DVP. Implemented automatic testing of logic verification.
“In the process of building the database, we also proposed some innovative methods, such as using a declarative programming language to realize the configuration of complex logic verification in a visual way; automatically forming an eCRF (electronic case report form), etc., which can also help sponsors, CRO builds a database quickly, efficiently, and land-saving, which in turn drives the rapid launch of data collection.”
For the data collection system (Prime Collect), when Yaocheng is designing products, it also focuses on the linkage with upstream and downstream links including database construction and statistics, and on the premise of meeting regulatory compliance requirements, possible encounters in clinical trials. Various scenarios. For example, Phase II and Phase III clinical trials often take a long time, and program upgrades or changes may be encountered during the process. In order to achieve rigorous data and user-friendly experience in database migration, Yaocheng provides “simulated migration” before the change, for User comparison test. In addition, on the basis of logical verification, Yaocheng Health has also done a lot of work in the automatic management of Query.
After launching the data collection and database building system, Yaocheng Health has innovated upstream and developed the “Prime Create” tool. For example, writing a test plan is a work that requires multi-unit and cross-departmental collaboration, and involves many roles. Therefore, the basic function of Prime Create is to provide online collaborative editing tools for sponsors/CROs, hospital PIs, etc. At the same time, it has functions similar to “online library” and “database”, which have accumulated different diseases and trial periods. Program templates and content recommendations related to data, drug classification, data statistics, etc. are available for users to choose. The program text completed by the user in the writing system will be precipitated in a structured and digital manner to drive the subsequent automatic database building, collection, statistics and other links, “equivalent to a pre-process of data source setting”.
Clinical logic engine with no-code/low-code configuration
Yaocheng’s clinical logic engine is based on artificial intelligence and runs through the entire clinical stage. It can automatically complete relevant execution or operation recommendations based on existing knowledge maps, content precipitation, etc. For example, based on a large number of documents related to clinical trials of new drugs, the documents are extracted, cleaned and structured through natural language processing, and various templates to serve for the design of medical plans are extracted. The plans can contain various variables and become understandable by computers. Structural elements, and then exert force on the downstream stage, including the linkage of the visit matrix, the generation of forms and logical verification, and even the generation of the final CSR. With the gradual enrichment and completeness of upstream data input, the automation of the operation of the clinical logic engine in the second half of clinical research will also be further improved.
In addition, there are many types of new drugs and complex clinical trial designs. How to solve the personalized and customized needs of sponsors or CROs for clinical research systems?
Chen Xiao said that after understanding the pain points and needs of the entire clinical research process and designing a forward-looking and flexible product system, more than 90% of the needs do not require code to solve, that is, “no code”. “. For example, a variety of configurations are provided in the DCT system, including outcome settings in the electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA). “We have set up a lot of functions from the perspective of computer technology to realize the WYSIWYG in the construction and configuration of the database, and make the personalized configuration intuitive and simple.”
“In the biostatistics segment, we launched Prime Compute, which provides a large number of custom algorithms that users can use out of the box or make some personalized designs; another product, Prime Comprehend (data insight and follow-up system), also provides A variety of data reports and display options are available. Based on Yaocheng’s self-developed low-code platform, after providing a large number of standard packages, users can complete a small amount of programming work to connect the system into products that meet the company’s individual needs. “
The Yaocheng clinical research platform is designed with an integrated intelligence, taking into account the needs of flexible configuration and independent product boundaries. The whole system can be connected with the data center of the enterprise according to CDISC and other standards to help complete the integration of enterprise systems to support more clinical data. and functional additions. Based on the understanding of international large-scale clinical trials, Yaocheng’s system adopts multi-cloud joint deployment, supports global compliance and local deployment, data is stored in separate but cross-border interoperability, user experience is unified and efficient, and it can meet the requirements of Sino-US dual reporting and international multi-center Requirements for conducting clinical trials.
At present, Yaocheng Health Technology has carried out in-depth cooperation with many large innovative pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and CROs. In addition to innovative drugs and innovative medical devices, its service targets are also expected to expand to consumer goods such as food and skin care products that require efficacy verification.
According to the “China Clinical Trials Landscape” published by Informa Pharma Intelligence in 2021, the number of I-IV clinical trials conducted in China will reach 3,641 in 2020. The market size related to the digitalization of clinical research is also growing rapidly. As a just-needed product required by regulatory requirements, the market space for clinical trial SaaS products is broad.
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36Kr billion euro investment China network
Related events
- Yaocheng Health Technology completes tens of millions of US dollars in A+ round of financing2022-10-12
- Yaocheng Health Technology completes 100 million yuan Series A financing2021-07-22
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