Anyone who's ever browsed ClinicalTrials.gov know that the amount of available data on trials can be overwhelming. For patients not familiar with the clinical trial process, the experience can be even more intimidating, causing them to shy away from trials.
Seattle-based Corengi hopes to change that with technology that could help better match patients with trials. Co-founders Ryan Luce and Eliot Cohen, who unveiled their start-up this week, have launched a site to help Type II diabetes patients navigate confusing inclusion criteria to find the best trials. The system, explains Xconomy, uses a 20-question form to match a patients' medical profile with the correct clinical trial. It further sorts by trial location relative to the patient's home, and allows patients to share their clinical trial experience with other users.
Luce and Cohen are betting that, if enough patients use their service, pharmaceutical and biotech companies will take notice. That could lead to big money as pharma companies attempt to reach patients interested in enrolling in a trial. All the major developers are pursuing new treatments for the massive Type II diabetes market, and a common complaint is the difficulty involved with recruiting the right subjects for new trials. "If you can make it easier for people to understand trials, then you can enlarge the pool," Luce tells Xconomy. "Pharma companies simply can't get enough patients through the door to participate. There's a real business problem there. If you help recruit patients, there's a market there." If the diabetes sit is successful, Corengi could build other sites for disease like rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and Alzheimer's.
- here's the Xconomy story
- check out Corengi's site