Oncology Ventures: Announces 6th Investment, IgniteData

Investing in healthcare data startups that enhance cancer care and research.

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Investment Thesis for IgniteData

Current State of Electronic Health Record (“EHR”) to Electronic Data Capture (“EDC”) Data Transfer:

Today, clinicians often spend hours manually entering data for patients who are enrolled in clinical trials. Once they’ve charted on a patient in the EHR, they will repeat the process and enter any relevant data into the EDC, essentially charting a second time. 

Groups that conduct a lot of clinical research may hire someone to do this task, alleviating the time burden on clinicians, but adding cost. The current process is time-consuming, expensive and introduces a potential source of error.

EDC systems are used in clinical trials to collect, store and manage clinical data. EHRs are a key source of these data but aren’t, on their own, sufficient for comprehensive clinical trial data needs. 

Sponsors and contract research organizations (“CROs”) have to quality check the data entered into their system to make sure it is inputted correctly (additional audits/queries = additional time and cost). Data verification adds an average of $65-80k of cost to each clinical trial (in Phase I studies, over 15% of clinical trial costs go to data verification). 

The large players in this space, notably electronic medical record (“EMR”) providers, aren’t focused on being able to send data from their systems to external EDC systems. This creates a process automation opportunity in a white space. 

Market Size and Need:

There are ~30K clinical trials of drugs, devices and behavioral interventions initiated each year, of which ~8.5k are funded by industry (e.g., pharma, biotech, and device companies). Industry sponsored trials typically involve multiple sites across several academic institutions, adding complexity, time and cost to each trial. 

There are 138k open trials currently running. Oncology is the largest therapeutic area in clinical trials, comprising 40% of the market. The need for a solution to better manage data flow in the clinical trial ecosystem is pressing, as Clinical Trial Management Systems (“CTMS”), EDC, EHR and other data systems result in duplicative work and high error rates.

The market for U.S. clinical trials is vast and expensive, set to reach $36B of spend by 2030. And, the market is incredibly inefficient:

• There is a lack of interoperability between EHR systems and EDC platforms, as each uses different data formats and terminology. 

• 20% of study costs are allocated to duplicating and verifying data across disparate site-sponsor systems.

• Healthcare organizations struggle to maintain regulatory compliance during EHR to EDC data transfer, which leads to increased regulatory fines and a rise in audit-related costs. 

With IgniteData’s current target partners and product line, this represents a $5.3B opportunity.

Why is Oncology Ventures Excited to Invest into IgniteData?:

• IgniteData seeks to be the conduit for usable data in clinical research for both pharma/biotech sponsors and for trial sites (e.g., hospitals, health systems). 

• Ignite’s flagship product, Archer, identifies and maps required data from the EHR into the EDC for clinical trials. The platform acts as a normalization engine between those worlds. 

  • Archer’s Smart Mapping Engine enables research staff to seamlessly transfer existing regulatory-grade data from the EHR to the sponsor’s study database in real time.

  • The app loads within the EHR, on a per patient level, so clinicians don’t need to open a new window. The platform leverages natural language processing (“NLP”) to unlock unstructured data that lives there, which comprises 1/2 of the notes in a given trial.

• The opportunity for IgniteData to solve adjacent high-value problems is clear, as Ignite can democratize access to clinical trials broadly. 

  • By becoming the source of truth for EHR-to-EDC data capture, the Company will be well-positioned to use advances in understanding unstructured data to generate clinical insights and, for example, identify patients who are good candidates for non-standard of care therapies or clinical trials. 

• IgniteData’s anchor partner is Memorial Sloan Kettering, a top cancer center, which has over 150 pharma sponsor partnerships and runs 2,000 clinical trials annually. 

• The platform has already proven ROI with Archer, saving health systems 70 hours per patient over a 2-year period and proving a 90% reduction in lab data queries. 

• IgniteData is led by industry veterans, including Zach Taft (co-founder of MSK’s Clinical Research Innovation Consortium) and Steven Tolle (global VP of strategy at IBM Watson Health).

• IgniteData aligns perfectly with Oncology Ventures’ thesis on improving clinical trial management and access through a data-driven, pick-and-shovel approach - ensuring clean, real-time transfer of data is widely available (saving time and money in the short term) and leveraging that infrastructure to expand into adjacent product lines, including clinical trial matching and analysis of unstructured data. 

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Comedy! 

Companies’ obsession with collecting my information is getting out of hand. I bought a new shirt at an actual store the other day. Shopping used to be easy - you hand the shirt to the cashier, they scan it, you pay, and you leave, right? Now they need your e-mail, home address and phone number. Buying a button-down shouldn’t require more information than a background check. I just want a shirt. I don't need to keep in touch. 

Retail stores are like an insecure guy who’s had a tough few years dating - “Hey just in case you stop coming by to see us, can you please give me 7 other ways to contact you just to be sure you’ve moved on?” You know who was way ahead of its time? WUPHF.com.

These stores ask for your info under the guise of being part of their loyalty program. “If you spend $100, you will be upgraded to Bronze status!”. Can getting to Bronze status let me unsubscribe for your constant “What’s Trending?” e-mails? You know what I want to see trending? You not contacting me.

After the purchase, they have the nerve to hit you with that “How did we do?” survey. You definitely annoyed me, but I like the shirt, so 3 stars. Even that process has extra steps now, “Why did you give us 3 stars? Please tell us. We promise to do better. Why don’t you come over for a glass of wine tonight and we can talk this through.” 

Making a dinner reservation isn’t any easier. I called a restaurant Thursday at 6pm asking for a table for 4 at 7pm. They said, "Definitely, what's your phone number?” Why? My name is Ben, I will be there in an hour. I don’t want to join your family group text, I just heard you guys have good lasagna. Also we’ve had caller ID for 30 years now, just check your log. They texted me every 15 minutes - “Hey, it’s us again, just making sure you are still coming…” Who hurt you guys? I’ll be there in a few.

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Asks

1. We are building out our downstream capital database for VCs

   1. If you are a VC firm that wants to be included in our curated portfolio company updates, please respond to this e-mail with your investment size, stage and any core thesis areas you are excited about. 

   2. Do you have one top recommendation for a VC / Growth Equity firm we should include in this list?

2. We will be at ASCO in Chicago 5/31-6/3 - let us know if you want to meet live or have an event we should check out