China digital CRO Elixir raises $52m

The company offers services such as medical program design, regulatory registration, project operation, and data management. It claims to differ from traditional CROs by leveraging digital solutions to improve the efficiency of clinical trials. This accelerates commercialisation and facilitates the movement of new drugs to market.

Elixir covers the entire clinical research cycle, from pre-clinical tests to real-world research once a drug is on market. Emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and big data analysis are integrated with industry resources and experience.

Digital capabilities are highly valued in the post-COVID era while traditional centralised clinical trials have become difficult due to concerns about viral infection. Patient-centric concepts and decentralized clinical trials (DCT) have emerged as an industry trend.

In addition, long and expensive clinical trials processes have always been a huge bottleneck in drug development. Elixir believes its technology-driven CRO can greatly improve the efficiency of patient recruitment, reduce the repetitive work of researchers, and improve the comprehensiveness and accuracy of data.

"With its years of experience in clinical trial management and its industry resources, [Elixir] can effectively achieve the seamless connection of data among drug developers, hospitals, CROs, SMOs and regulatory agencies, truly reducing labour costs, improving efficiency, and accelerating progress," said Long Chen, a managing director of Lyfe.

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• Topics
• Greater China
• Healthcare
• Early-stage
• China
• Pharmaceuticals
• Lyfe Capital
• Sinovation Ventures