WASHINGTON, April 8, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- KiwiTech, LLC, an innovation platform that helps startups build viable products, drive traction, and raise capital, today announced a strategic partnership with Jeeva Informatics Solutions Inc, an AI-driven startup that builds patient-focused big data and digital health solutions for accelerating clinical research.
"We are excited to support Jeeva in their mission to decentralize clinical research, reduce patients' travel burden and optimize operations," said Rakesh Gupta, Co-Founder, and CEO of KiwiTech. "Though Jeeva set out on their vision much before the current pandemic, it has become particularly relevant in the context of COVID-19. We look forward to helping Jeeva further its mission and scale through our unique startup ecosystem."
While Biopharmaceutical companies have been conducting randomized controlled clinical trials for over 70 years, the traditional process has become unsustainable. According to a 2018 report by PhRMA, the average cost of bringing one successful therapy to market through FDA approval exceeded $2.5B and took over 12 years.
Jeeva Informatics was selected by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Spring 2019 into the Innovation Corps grant program at their Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) node, Boston, MA to understand first-hand, the various stakeholders' perspectives on the pain-points and bottlenecks. Having interviewed over 300 customer stakeholders of clinical trials in the U.S., the major pain points recorded consistently were patient recruitment, retention, and protocol adherence.
"Patients' travel burden of visiting brick-and-mortar sites is a single problem that, when solved right, can help address all of those customer pain-points. Jeeva is focused on solving this problem by developing a real-time decentralized solution for collecting patients' outcomes data which replaces in-person interactions with videoconferencing, digital engagement, and remote safety monitoring. Such a robust solution can enable our customers to better manage unforeseen complexities, such as those arising out of a global pandemic." said Harsha Rajasimha, founder and CEO of Jeeva.
Earlier this year in January, Jeeva had announced a round of investment led by CITGapFunds and plans to launch its first product in late 2020 with several clients. Jeeva's initial focus will include long-term follow-ups after the administration of cell and gene therapies for rare diseases and Cancer. Jeeva is seeking additional early adopters and strategic partners with access to real-world clinical settings.
"Our selection process is highly competitive. In 2019, we received 40,734 startup applications, interviewed 2,501 of them, and invested in only 109 of them. Jeeva expects to achieve its minimum viable product in 2020 for its initial set of customers and strategic partners. The partnership with KiwiTech allows Jeeva to leverage our deep technical expertise and insight to realize the promise of decentralized or hybrid clinical trials in the U.S. and eventually globally," said Gupta.
About KiwiTech
Over the last decade, KiwiTech has led innovation across multiple verticals scaling businesses in the tech space. KiwiTech intimately understands the challenges faced by new founders, aspiring unicorns and established leaders and works closely with them to realize their passion and purpose. Through its extensive relationships and expertise, KiwiTech brings a perspective that helps strategically connect technology creators with technology consumers. KiwiTech is an ecosystem of proactive investors and advisors who are passionate about building technology, supporting entrepreneurship, and helping companies realize their maximum potential.
About Jeeva Informatics
Jeeva is a seed-stage venture-backed startup on a mission to develop AI-driven decentralized clinical trials and optimize patient-focused clinical research. The Jeeva Trials solution reduces patient travel burden by replacing in-person trial site visits with videoconferencing, remote monitoring and digital engagement. Jeeva is particularly beneficial for both rare disorders and clinical research studies involving long-term follow-ups and safety monitoring. Jeeva is a member of several life science membership organizations including Virginia BIO, BioHealth Capital Region, and the Global Genes Corporate Alliance.
SOURCE KiwiTech
Share this article