eLilly Venture Fund invests in 1747
According to 1747, it plans to use the investment, combined with existing revenue, to complete the development of its direct-to-participant clinical trials system. Additionally, the funds will be used to help accelerate and expand the commercialization of its system.
"1747's revolutionary solution offers significant value in the clinical trials arena," said Alph Bingham, Vice President of eR&D at Eli Lilly and Company. "The clinical trial portion of drug development is the most complex and time-consuming part of drug discovery and development. Our strategic investment in this technology enables us to improve access to the participant and in some cases, will provide us with faster, better and more broad clinical trial data."
1747's flagship product is designed as a new approach to clinical trials and conducts randomized, controlled, double-blinded clinical trials over the Internet. According to 1747, direct-to-participant clinical trials enable pharmaceutical companies to leverage the Internet in a way that was not possible with traditional clinical trials methods.
"This funding will enable us to capitalize on clinical trials in this industry by providing the convenience for more people to participate in clinical trials by using their computer," said Julian Nikolchev, President of 1747. "We are delighted to be associated with e.Lilly and the tremendous added value as business partners and advisors that they will bring to 1747."
1747's approach to clinical trials includes; the ability to reach more potential participants than current methods; reduce unnecessary steps in entering and managing data; improves physician contribution to clinical trials by enabling them to focus their primary efforts on the study design and data analysis phases; provides more a 'real-life' setting for testing the safety and marketable benefits of a drug; and improves the speed involved in completing clinical trials.
"Clinical trials are vital to medical research," said Steve Cummings, a leader in the area of clinical trial design and a founding member of the 1747 team. "1747 has developed an innovative, high-quality approach that changes the current clinical trial paradigm by bringing the clinical trials to participants rather than recruiting participants to clinical trial centers."
The 1747 clinical trial system is designed to automate all procedures in clinical trials, from recruitment to consent to closeout and analysis. According to 1747, participants are randomized online to receive a treatment or a placebo, and study treatments are delivered to their homes. After completion of the study, each participant will be provided treatment information and individual results.