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Science 37® Raises $35M in Funding to Continue to Drive Growth - Announces Leadership Transition
Science 37, a patient-centric clinical trial company, announced today that it has raised $35 million in Series D financing led by Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD) with participation by all major existing investors as well as industry partners, including dRx Capital (a Qualcomm and Novartis joint investments company), Redmile Group, LLC, Lux Capital, Glynn Capital, and GV (formerly Google Ventures), among others. With this round of financing, the largest in Science 37’s history, the company has raised over $100 million to date.
The company also announced a leadership transition, under which co-founder Noah Craft MD, PhD, will step down from his role as CEO and co-founder Belinda Tan MD, PhD will step down as Chief Medical Officer. Craft will remain a member of the Board of Directors. The Board will initiate a search process to identify the next CEO. Judy Smythe has been named President of Science 37, in addition to her current role as Chief Operating Officer and, in the interim, will lead the day-to-day operations, with support from the Board of Directors. Further, in connection with the Series D funding, Bhooshi DeSilva, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at PPD, will join the Science 37 Board of Directors.
“We are pleased to be partnering with PPD and this group of investors as we look to build on Science 37’s growth to date,” said Rob Faulkner, Chairman of the Science 37 Board of Directors. “With Science 37’s current momentum and major operational scaling efforts ahead, Noah and Belinda have decided that this is the right time for the company to hire the next CEO to help take Science 37 to the next level. On behalf of our Board of Directors, I’d like to thank Noah and Belinda for their noteworthy accomplishments in bringing the company to this point and in making virtual trials part of the industry lexicon. We look forward to working with them as the Company moves into its next chapter.”
PPD’s investment in Science 37 demonstrates its commitment to accelerating patient-centered virtual clinical trials, which remove geographic barriers to patient participation. In addition to the infusion of growth capital, Science 37 will collaborate with Accelerated Enrollment Solutions, a PPD organization that combines Acurian’s unique data science-fueled patient enrollment services with the Synexus global site network, the largest site network in the world.
“Our investment underscores a belief that there are expanded services that PPD’s Accelerated Enrollment Solutions can offer to vastly improve patient enrollment rates in clinical trials through more patient-centric and data-driven recruiting efforts plus Science 37’s unique virtual trials model,” said Roger Smith, PPD Senior Vice President and General Manager of Accelerated Enrollment Solutions. “We believe our investment will bring immediate value to our clients’ current research programs and help speed the adoption of these evolving models industry-wide.”
Noah Craft, co-founder and member of the Science 37 Board, said, “Belinda and I believe the team at Science 37 has made great progress towards our vision of democratizing science since its September 2014 launch. We look forward to the Company’s next chapter and to continuing our collaborative work with Judy and the team here as we advance the model of virtual trials and our mission to accelerate biomedical research by putting patients first.”
Belinda Tan, co-founder of Science 37, said, “Our work over the last five years brought the promise of using technology to empower patients into reality. The model enables a more diverse population of people to access clinical trials and we are hopeful this transition in the company will enable a more global impact for the future.”
About Science 37
Headquartered in Los Angeles, Science 37 is a technology-enabled clinical research company built by a team of doctors, scientists, and technologists whose mission is to accelerate biomedical research by putting patients first. They are revolutionizing clinical research with a decentralized operating model – the Metasite™ – which connects all people to science. Network Oriented Research Assistant (NORA®) is their cloud-based, patient-centric mobile platform that safely and securely supports end-to-end clinical trial services from recruitment to complete “site-less” trial execution. Researchers can find the right patients and patients can find the right trials, resulting in more access for everyone. By removing geographic limitations, Science 37 has demonstrated greater participant diversity and increased clinical trial efficiency and speed. Ultimately, Science 37 enables higher quality, people-powered science to advance digital health innovation. Learn more at https://www.science37.com, and follow Science 37 on Twitter @Science37x.
About PPD
PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 48 countries and more than 21,000 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a firm commitment to quality to help clients and partners bend the cost and time curve of drug development and optimize value in delivering life-changing therapies to improve health. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com.
Science 37 Contacts
Science 37
Phone: (984) 377-3737
Email: pr@science37.com
Media:
Sard Verbinnen & Co
Daniel Goldstein/TJ White
+1 310 201 2040/+1 212 687 8080
dgoldstein@sardverb.com / twhite@sardverb.com
PPD Contacts
Media:
Randy Buckwalter
+1 919 456 4425
Investors:
Nate Speicher
+1 910 558 6783