UM6P Ventures, a Morrocan early-stage venture capital firm, has announced its investment in Infiuss Health. The startup is developing a decentralized SaaS platform to power remote research and clinical trials in Africa.
Pharmacological companies attempt to include a large and varied population within their phased trial cohorts to prove their medical thesis. However, Africans, a significant group of genetically diverse participants, are not traditionally well represented within their demographic profile, rendering their trial outcomes potentially skewed.
There is a need for researchers to select a wider range of people from different demographics to participate in clinical research to reduce bias, promote health equity, and produce innovative scientific findings.
To date, Africa’s participation is only a small percentage of the global clinical trials landscape, as a result of the regulatory and ethical implications of clinical trials. To that end, several individual regulatory bodies have joined efforts to ensure that clinical trials in African countries are conducted in accordance with international best clinical practices and ethical standards.
Thus, with new regulatory structures in place in Africa, medicinal effectiveness and availability will be improved. In fact, Infiuss Health only services sponsors that have previously been approved by the U.S. FDA, which ensures that trials comply with the exacting framework required by U.S. regulations.
Infiuss Health provides clinical trial access to African participants and allows pharmaceutical companies to conduct and monitor these trials via the Infiuss Health Probe Platform. Through their direct-to-participant approach, they help corporate and academic researchers diversify their cohorts by connecting them directly to thousands of eligible African participants to take part in their clinical studies.
“Our main mission is to make clinical research accessible to all Africans. We’re very pleased to have UM6P Ventures’ support as Infiuss Health continues to grow African clinical trials that will have enormous benefits, including improved healthcare and patient outcomes.”, stated Melissa Bime, CEO and Founder of Infiuss Health.
Through a single dashboard, the all-in-one software platform helps companies identify and select the right sites for trials, manage the entire research process, remotely recruit participants, collect remote consent, gather, and analyze data and provide virtual support faster and cheaper than third-party contract research organizations.
“The clinical trial phase is decisive in the pharmacological development lifecycle. This is a branch of our Healthtech investment thesis that we have been actively investigating. The Infiuss Health team brings a solution, expertise, and experience that adds critical elements to our health science and technology ecosystem. We are confident in their ability to deliver on their value proposition and contribute to the improvement of the health system in Africa,” said Yasser Biaz, CEO of UM6P Ventures.
