VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners Invests in Jeeva to Help Increase Patient Diversity in Clinical Trials
Company’s Modular B2B cloud-based software accelerates the decentralization of clinical trials
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, UNITED STATES, August 31, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Virginia Venture Partners, the equity investment program of Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC), today announced an investment in Manassas, Va.-based Jeeva. Jeeva provides a scalable eClinical Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that helps sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) accelerate flexible clinical operations while minimizing burden on site staff and patients. Jeeva will use this investment towards commercialization of the SaaS platform to accelerate therapy development for therapeutic areas such as rare diseases, immunology, and oncology in the U.S. and in emerging markets such as Latin America and India, where the company has recently established strategic partnerships.
On average, it takes 18 months to start a study and recruit participants in late-stage interventional clinical trials. Further, a majority of participants trial visits in 2019 were still in-person at brick-and-mortar sites, creating a significant travel burden. Jeeva’s goal is to make patient enrollment three times faster to help provide access to novel treatments to people who need it, where they are.
Jeeva’s modular eClinical Cloud software platform combines remote patient screening, recruitment with eConsent, data collection, and hyper-personalized patient engagement from a single login from any browser-enabled mobile device. Jeeva also streamlines and simplifies regulatory compliance and IT security on a managed cloud infrastructure, without the need for additional hardware or technology by sponsors. As a result, sponsors can focus on their core mission of developing novel therapies enabled by the trusted Jeeva eClinical platform.
“It is imperative that, as an industry, we work to accelerate clinical trials to bring new medicines or vaccines to all patients, including historically underrepresented minorities, who need them, thus increasing chances of survival,” said Dr. Harsha Rajasimha, Jeeva’s founder, CEO and CTO. “Our modular platform is fully scalable and facilitates diverse patient enrollment, engagement, retention, and evidence generation. We are so grateful to VIPC’s Virginia Venture Partners investment to help continue our growth.”
85% of clinical trials are delayed due to the slow pace of patient enrollment and 30% of clinical trials fail because they cannot meet their target enrollment. These delays cause biopharmaceutical sponsors to lose $600,000 to $8 million each day in lost revenues. Jeeva’s easy to use platform allows clinical trials to meet patient enrollment and increase diversity by minimizing travel and logistical burdens on patients and study teams.
“With a team of professionals dedicated to connecting people and finding ways to promote access therapies in clinical trials, Jeeva’s offering provides a flexible and accessible resource to those who cannot travel easily,” says Tom Weithman, VIPC Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director of Virginia Venture Partners. “Jeeva is embracing the potential of digital technologies to reduce the cost, increase the speed, and ease the burden on participants in these studies. We are excited to contribute to their success and see the impact they make on companies.”
About Jeeva
The personal experience of losing a child born with a rare disease and a brother with a chronic disease became the springboard for Dr. Harsha Rajasimha to apply his years of postdoctoral training at NIH and FDA to accelerate therapies for rare and common conditions. He knew that technology in itself is not the limiting factor and that patient-centered design guided by stakeholder needs and regulatory requirements would guide their continuous learning digital platform. By digitizing and automating manual repetitive tasks and reducing the logistical burdens on patients and study teams by over 70%, Jeeva accelerates the process of bringing new medicines or vaccines to patients who need them by over 3x faster. The Virginia-based company’s modular software-as-a-service platform is fully scalable and facilitates diverse patient enrollment, engagement, and evidence generation in clinical trials on any browser-enabled mobile device. Visit https://jeevatrials.com/
About Virginia Venture Partners
Virginia Venture Partners is the equity investment program of VIPC that makes seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology, clean energy, and life science companies with a high potential for achieving rapid growth and generating a significant economic return for entrepreneurs, co-investors, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Since its inception in 2005, Virginia Venture Partners has deployed $32.4 million in capital across more than 250 portfolio companies, including 17 companies in designated Opportunity Zones. Virginia Venture Partners’ investment decisions are guided by the Virginia Venture Partners Investment Advisory Board (IAB). This independent, third-party panel has drawn from the expertise of leading regional entrepreneurs, angel, and strategic investors, and venture capital firms such as New Enterprise Associates, Grotech Ventures, Harbert Venture Partners HIG Ventures, Edison Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Intersouth Partners, SJF Ventures, Carilion Health Systems, Johnson & Johnson, General Electric, and Alpha Natural Resources. For more information, please visit www.virginiaipc.org/vvp.
About Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
Connecting innovators with opportunities. The nonprofit operations arm of the Virginia Innovation Partnership Authority (VIPA), VIPC is the commercialization and seed stage economic development driver in the Commonwealth that leads funding, infrastructure, and policy initiatives to support Virginia’s innovators, entrepreneurs, startups, and market development strategies. VIPC collaborates with local, regional, state, and federal partners to support the expansion and diversification of Virginia’s economy.
Programs include: Virginia Venture Partners (VVP) | Virginia Founders Fund (VFF) |Commonwealth Commercialization Fund (CCF) | Smart Communities | Unmanned Systems | Public Safety Innovation |Entrepreneurial Ecosystems | Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) | Federal Funding Assistance Program (FFAP) for SBIR & STTR | University Partnerships | Startup Company Mentoring & Engagement. For more information, please visit www.VirginiaIPC.org. Follow VIPC on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
Angela Costello, Vice President of Communications
Virginia Innovation Partnership Corporation (VIPC)
[email protected]
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