Sano Genetics, a Cambridge-based software platform for patient recruitment in clinical trials, has raised $11.4m (£9m).
The company is aiming to improve the efficiency of medicinal clinical trials by offering pharmaceutical companies catered patient recruitment.
The British Research Panel in 2023 published data claiming that only one in five trials find enough participants within the time frame, slowing down the development of potential vital medicine.
Sano Genetics connects patients in the UK, US, Canada and Australia with pharma and biotech companies conducting trials. Its digital matchmaking service compares the criteria of participants.
The startup also drives trial recruitment with advertising via social media and healthcare providers.
The platform can also be used to manage the various aspects of the trial, such as participant communication and returning results.
“Precision medicine is transforming how we think about and approach healthcare, and clinical trials are the bedrock of precision drug development,” said Sano Genetics co-founder Patrick Short.
“In the past 12 months, we’ve scaled up our capacity to hold three times more trials than the year before and launched our first programme supporting families affected by ALS.”
Short said the new funding will allow the company to integrate “LLMs and other AI tools” into the platform.
The funding round was led by Plural and featured participation from MMC Ventures, Episode 1 and Seedcamp.
“Precision medicine is going to transform how healthcare is delivered but it needs seamless software tools like Sano Genetics’ to accelerate its impact,” said Plural partner Carina Namih.
“My own experience of the difficulty of running clinical trials during my time leading HelixNano helped me understand profoundly just how sorely a platform like Sano Genetics is needed.”
In 2022, Sano Genetics raised £8.4m in its Series A round.