Deal Radar 2009: DecisionView

DecisionView is a leading provider of web-based software solutions for the life sciences industry. These solutions help companies improve their clinical trial performance by making informed decisions through predictive analytics and scenario simulation and modeling.

The life sciences, pharmaceutical and biotech industries are all under tremendous pressure to bring products to market faster and more cost effectively. Clinical development is very costly, timely and unpredictable. DecisionView’s application, StudyOptimizer, is the first web-based application designed specifically for clinical trials. Companies using StudyOptimizer have reduced their clinical study costs and improved clinical trial predictability. DecisionView aims to provide decision-making analytics and tools that allow pharmaceutical companies to make intelligent decisions and choices by which they allocate resources and make adjustments to their clinical plans. The company also offers technical consulting, implementation performance, optimization planning, integration and upgrade, training and support services.

Although DecisionView was founded by another individual, the current CEO, Steve Andrade, was brought in refocus the company. Andrade had spent over 23 years in the life sciences and technology arena. Prior to joining DecisionView, he headed up the life sciences business unit at Oracle and at Siebel and was also at Eli Lilly for seven years before that. The company was founded as Coprindm Corporation in 2003 and changed its name to DecisionView in 2005; the original application was launched in 2006. DecisionView is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

The company has been primarily VC backed. In July 2007, DecisionView raised a $7 million Series C backed by new investor firstVentury as well as existing investors Partech International and Granite Ventures. Their first three rounds brought the amount of investment in DecisionView to $20.3 million. In December 2008, the company closed its Series D round for an undisclosed amount from Granite Ventures, Adobe Ventures and Aeris Capital.

The main benefit of using the software is reduced out-of-pocket costs related to clinical development, particularly for recruitment and enrollment. The software also allows companies to course correct and make adjustments sooner rather than later. They can tell a company not only that they’re going to have a problem but where that problem will be. DecisionView offers both an on-demand hosted version and an on-premise implementation that is delivered by a professional services team. Some companies prefer the on-site delivery, behind their firewall, and others prefer it hosted. In the long term, the company expects more companies to move towards the hosted solution.

An article in Bio-IT World says that according to technology research firm Gartner, StudyOptimizer has helped companies finish 50 percent more clinical trials on time and reach recruitment target milestones of 20 percent more often. GlaxoSmithKline independently reports that the frequency of which trials are completed on time has doubled with the use of the application.

At present DecisionView has no direct competitors, and their market is calculated based on the number of studies conducted per year globally, which is in excess of 40,000. DecisionView’s top target segments are pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

There are four main areas to the life sciences: pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device and clinical device organizations. DecisionView focuses on the first two, with an evolving focus on clinical research organizations. DecisionView started working with some of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the industry, which provided good input in terms of how the solution was being designed. Current customers include a number of the leading pharmaceutical companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline and Wyeth.

DecisionView sells directly to the pharmaceutical and the biotech industry and is currently not an OEM business model. To date, StudyOptimizer and DecisionView have been used in over 600 clinical studies worldwide. They have been involved in recruitment and enrollment of over 115,000 patients worldwide and have been utilized in over 10 therapeutic areas of medicine.

In October 2008, DecisionView was named “Best Market Solution” at the IDC Technology Insight conference. In March of the previous year, the company was selected as one of the Life Science industry’s ‘Cool Vendors in Life Sciences, 20007’ report by Gartner, Inc.

The company declined to disclose their financials as they are at an early-growth stage. Their strategy is to continue to grow and expand within life sciences, not only with StudyOptimizer but with new applications which are recommended by their current customers. They plan to expand in the industry with their current application and also introduce new products and solutions to the marketplace which have been encouraged by the industry.

With no current exit plans, CEO Andrade says, “Certainly as a board member and the CEO I remain vigilant in keeping a pulse on the market, keeping a pulse on opportunities in the market that serve DecisionView and its shareholders in the best way possible.”

Recommended Readings:
Forbes Column: Healing Health Care
Web 3.0 and Online Health

This segment is a part in the series : Deal Radar 2009