UK-based company Tomorrows Medicines has secured funding of more than £250,000 from public and private investors to commercialise its interactive web platform for the recruitment and retention of clinical-trial participants.

YourTreatmentChoices.com was developed by Tomorrows Medicines, which operates out of the Daresbury Sci-Tech campus in Cheshire, to provide a bridge between patients interested in clinical trials locally and teams from global pharmaceutical, biotechnology, diagnostic, academic and other research organisations looking to recruit and retain study participants.

The website has already helped patients in 78 countries to find approved clinical trials in their local area.

Of the total funding, £100,500 came from The North West Fund for Biomedical, managed by SPARK Impact and part of the wider North West Fund for small and medium-sized businesses in the North West of England, which is financed jointly by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank.

Private investors supplied another £100,500 and the remaining £50,000 came from the government’s Technology Strategy Board.

Recruitment lag

In the UK, issues with patient recruitment mean that 40 per cent of trials do not complete at all, The North West Fund noted.

Tomorrows Medicines is led, and was co-founded, by chief executive officer Dr Clare Nolan, whose previous experience includes stints with Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca.

Nolan said the new funds would enable Tomorrows Medicines to “provide a fully-supported service to global pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostic companies looking to accelerate patient recruitment across all clinical areas”.