Semalytix, a startup based in Bielefeld, Germany that offers pharmaceutical companies an AI-powered data tool to better understand patients' experiences in the real world, has raised € 4.3 million in Series A funding. .
Leading the round is venture capital firm btov Partners, with the participation of existing investor Fly Ventures and several unnamed angels. Semalytix will use the cash injection to expand its business development with pharmaceutical companies and the wider healthcare market.
Founded in 2015 as a spin-out of the Semantic Computing research group, Semalytix proposes itself as a data analytics and artificial intelligence startup that wants to bring more real-world evidence to the development of new drugs and treatments. Its flagship product, nicknamed "Pharos", is a patient search tool that collects and cleans up various unstructured public data - such as blogs, forums, social media, etc. - and then applies algorithms to provide real-time information to patients about unmet needs, treatment experience, and how severely a disease affects the lives of those who suffer from it.
"Our vision is to help make patient insights a true Northstar KPI in drug development," Semalytix co-founder and CEO Janik Jaskolski tells me. "Due to new regulatory initiatives (and public pressure), the pharmaceutical sector must demonstrate patient centrality in drug development, [and] include the patient's perspective in decision making and produce evidence that their treatments provide real-world value. For patients, that value usually does not consist of, for example, lowering the blood sugar level by an additional 3%. On the contrary, they are concerned with improving their quality of life, being able to play longer with their children or simply having an easier time in their daily activities ".
However, Jaskolski argues that such patient insights and related evidence are difficult to obtain. "If asked, a patient will often tell a different story about how a disease affects his life and what he needs to improve it than what a doctor would say. That's why we don't analyze medical or hospital data. Instead, we are looking at existing public data that patients share online, with their authentic voice, around the world. "
Semalytix AI claims to be able to identify, read and summarize millions of patient journeys online in a highly scalable way. AI is also capable of transforming this data into online target populations for different diseases and covers 11 different languages. "It does this by applying algorithmic research tools inspired by WHO, FDA and EMA to make analytics transparent and scientifically meaningful for the pharmaceutical industry," adds Jaskolski.
Meanwhile, although electronic health records, patient registries and similar data sources are already receiving a lot of attention from startups, Jaskolski argues that the largest source of unstructured patient data that exists today is being overlooked and yet has great potential. to "improve patient care, identify new therapeutic opportunities, inform the development of clinical trials and even help accelerate the development of new therapies for rare diseases."
Semalytix's business model is proven. The startup sells corporate licenses for access to its platform. A company can purchase a license for 12 months or more for specific diseases. "Each license allows for disease-specific subgroup analyzes, assesses populations and creates cohorts based on severity of different disease burdens, treatment experiences and quality of life," adds Semalytix CEO.
"Over time, we want to include more and more diseases on the platform and deliver a unique patient data stream to the pharmaceutical industry, but also to the provider and regulator side of healthcare."
