Dear ,
Cisiv has been a pioneering developer of technology solutions for pharmaceutical companies, enabling customers to capture new levels of information on the use of their products and treatments in real world settings.
A specialist in large scale phase IV observational studies, Cisiv’s next generation Web-based software platform enables pharmaceutical customers to capture, analyse and share patient data quickly, simply and effectively. With new levels of intelligence harnessed utilising the Baseline Plus platform, they can demonstrate the effectiveness of treatments and identify additional patient value and healthcare benefits way beyond that which can be achieved through traditional means – often paper-based.
The Product
Cisiv has developed Baseline Plus, a highly differentiated software tool for managing studies of licensed medicines (late phase ‘real world’ studies) that has been deployed by many large pharma companies. The company has now developed partnerships with a number of CRO’s (clinical research organisations), including a top-two global late phase CRO, with Baseline Plus as the chosen late phase technology.
The Model
Cisiv’s business model is highly scalable and revenues are largely recurring. The company is led by a strong team with proven expertise in the CRO trials industry. This financing round is being utilised to develop the company’s roll-out into Japan, a critical late-stage market and one that will help refine the model for future global expansion.
The late phase electronic data capture (EDC) market is estimated to be $500m - $1bn, growing at 30% to 40% annually.
The Team
Dominic Farmer, CEO, has over 25 years experience in both healthcare technology and observational research. He set up Cisiv to provide technologies for use in real world research following extensive experience with leading global Pharma companies in the software development and implementation of large-scale global studies.
Steve Powell, Chairman, has been in the clinical research space for over 20 years. He has extensive experience gained through senior roles in finance, IT, business development, commercial and manufacturing within the Pharmaceutical industry. Steve was instrumental in the establishment of Phase Forward as a global leader in the provision of software as a service (SaaS) to the Pharmaceutical industry prior to its sale to Oracle.
Ruth Whittaker, Finance Manager and Founder has been responsible for all Cisiv financial activities since 1998. Since the foundation of the company she has been closely involved in all strategic decisions and in setting the direction of the business.
Gurjinder Brench, Operations Director, has worked within operational roles at Accenture, Phase Forward and Parexel. Gurj is charged with with delivery of all software and service to customers and partners.
Investment Case
Post regulatory and approval trials for new drugs, are a fast growing sector as regulators seek to get more data once the drug is being used in the real world and pharmaceutical companies seek to build data on their new drugs as differentiation in the burgeoning personalised medicine market becomes key.
The value of observational research is that it can provide a picture of how drugs are prescribed and how they perform in a real-world setting. While clinical trials need to control the inclusion of patients to have scientific validity, observational research gains its scientific validity from its breadth of inclusion of both prescribing doctors and patients. With this comes an entirely different type of data, collected from a different population, less controlled and structured and analysed using different methodologies.
The existing software used by CRO’s in their existing clinical trials is relatively cumbersome and needs training. This is where CISIV is attractive. In a new rapidly growing market they have developed software specifically for it and are unencumbered with the past. As a result it is much more user friendly for the participants than the legacy software. As the CRO’s set-up new departments to satisfy their clients need to do more post-approval research they are looking for differentiators to help develop the market. This helps explain CISIV’s success so far, having established a partnership with the second largest CRO in the world, a second global top 10 CRO in the last 6 months and working with innovators leading new approaches in Japan. The revenue model is sticky and repeatable and in the next couple of years should expand significantly.
As the software becomes embedded in the late stage clinical trial process the liklihood of a trade sale increases and in our view that may start to get traction in around four years time.
