Novadiscovery raises series A financing to scale its in silico clinical trial platform - Debiopharm leads the round with EUR 5 million

Lausanne (ots) -

- Novadiscovery pioneers the use of in silico clinical trials to
predict drug efficacy and optimize clinical development, an approach
meeting the strong expectations from pharmaceutical companies for
faster and more efficient development, and benefiting from increased
endorsement from health regulatory agencies in the US and in Europe

- The investment arm of Debiopharm, a private, Swiss corporate fund
specialized in Smart Data and Digital Health, leads the Series A

The French health-tech company Novadiscovery, which performs in silico trials
for pharma and biotech companies with the aim of reducing research & development
(R&D) costs and time-to-market of novel drugs, has closed the first 5 million
euros of a 7 million euros Series A funding round with Debiopharm.

Novadiscovery will use the funding to scale its in silico clinical trial
simulation platform Jink?® in a software as a service (SaaS) model and develop
further disease models, enabling its clients to directly conduct their in silico
trials, and to develop its presence on the US market, the largest market
globally for drug development. Novadiscovery has developed a hybrid platform
blending mechanistic models with artificial intelligence (AI), which goal is to
de-risk R&D decisions by predicting the clinical benefits of new drugs before
trials in human. While Jink?® is indication-agnostic, over the past decade it
has been notably deployed in immuno-oncology, orphan diseases, metabolic
diseases and cardiotherapy.

"We have seen the significant positive impact our in silico trials platform can
have on reducing R&D costs and compressing time-to-market for new drugs and in
drug repositioning," comments François-Henri Boissel, CEO and Co-Founder. "This
funding allows us to accelerate the development of our platform in a SaaS model
that will make it available to a growing number of clients and projects, notably
in the US. We are excited by the synergies we can reap from collaborating with a
strategic investor such as Debiopharm Innovation Fund which brings a deep
understanding of healthcare, life sciences and digital health."

"We're excited about the impact that in silico trials could have on drug
development. Plus, we're particularly enthusiastic to help take this approach to
different fields of research in the US market where the benefit of this R&D
accelerator is expected to offer real improvements in patient outcomes.", says
Tanja Dowe, CEO for the investment arm of Debiopharm.

About in silico clinical trials

Reducing R&D costs and time-to-market has become a key strategic objective for
healthcare companies and payors. The in silico trial market is evaluated to grow
to $2,88 billion in annual revenue by 2022, when it will still represent only a
small fraction of $165 billion annual drug R&D spent (1).

(1: Unlocking R&D productivity, Deloitte-Global data report 2018)

Reducing the number of "real" patients involved in clinical trials is a central
issue, for both the industry and regulators. Because there are not so many
patients considering the number of drugs to be evaluated, and their
participation in a clinical trial must be as ethical as possible.

Nova's unique hybrid approach to running in silico clinical trials presents
several benefits, one of which being that it can operate in data-poor
environments, which is the biggest hurdle more conventional AI approaches are
facing. The computer modelling & simulation of drugs, diseases and virtual
patients yields high value applications spanning the entire R&D spectrum, from
systematic target combination exploration to late-stage trial size reduction
through the characterization of optimal responder profiles.

From an ethical point of view, Nova's approach helps ensure that patients
benefit from the most satisfactory therapeutic response and in the best possible
time.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is already strongly committed to the
emergence of in silico trials to improve R&D output: among the FDA's top 8
strategic priorities, 4 are related to modelling and simulation (2).

(2: US Congress, Jul-2017; FDA pilot program, Apr-2018)

About Novadiscovery

Pioneer of in silico medicine, NOVADISCOVERY improves the R&D productivity and
maximizes patient outcomes by predicting a new drug's clinical benefit by
computer simulation ahead of human trials.

NOVADISCOVERY's innovative approach combines mathematical models of diseases and
treatments with virtual patients into its integrated clinical trial simulation
platform Jink?® which brings together all the modeling and simulation expertise
of the company accumulated over the past decade.

Headquartered in Lyon, France, NOVADISCOVERY assembles a team of about 30
scientists, engineers & clinicians who work at the interface of biology,
pharmacology, mathematics & computer sciences.

For more information, please visit https://www.novadiscovery.com and follow us
on Twitter @novadiscovery and linkedin.com/company/novadiscovery

About Debiopharm

Debiopharm develops, manufactures and invests in innovative therapies and
technologies that respond to high unmet medical needs in oncology and bacterial
infections. The objective of our investment arm is to provide strategic funding
and guidance for companies with Smart Data & Digital Health solutions with the
ambition to change the way drugs are developed and the way patients are treated.
Our growing portfolio company achievements includes 18 FDA clearances or CE
marks and 2 IPOs. Since 2008, the company has invested nearly USD 100 millions
and led 10 out of the 14 last investment rounds in its portfolio companies.

For more information, please visit www.debiopharm.com

We are on Twitter. Follow us @DebiopharmNews

Pressekontakt:

DEBIOPHARM
Dawn Haughton
Communication Manager
+41 21 321 01 11
dawn.haughton@debiopharm.com

Weber Shandwick

Europe
Eglantine Daguet
+ 41 22 879 85 07
edaguet@webershandwick.com

USA
Tia Di Salvo
+1 212 445 8388
tdisalvo@webershandwick.com

NOVADISCOVERY
François-Henri BOISSEL
CEO and Co-founder
+33 (0)6 75 48 31 81
francois.boissel@novadiscovery.com

ATCG-Partners

France
Marie PUVIEUX
+33 (0)6 10 54 36 72

Outside of France
Ana Maria LEON ORTIZ
+33 (0)7 71 82 12 29
presse@atcg-partners.com

Additional content: https://www.presseportal.de/pm/121610/4487644
OTS: Debiopharm International SA

Original-Content von: Debiopharm International SA, übermittelt durch news aktuell