Clinical trials are frightening endeavors for biotech investors. Expensive and fraught with risk, a trial’s failure can seriously lighten an investor’s pockets with little hope of recourse. After gaining approval from global insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London, a new partnership is set to use a machine learning algorithm to offer investors insurance on clinical trial funding.
The risk-reducing union sees insurance underwriter Medical and Commercial International Limited (MCI) pair up with GATC Health Corp. GATC developed a platform—called Multiomics Advanced Technology—that it claims can predict the efficacy, safety and side effects of new drugs by simulating human biology.
“Through our new relationship with MCI, backed by Lloyd’s, we aim to transform the drug development financial model to bring safer and more effective treatments to those who are suffering from acute medical conditions,” GATC CEO John Stroh said in a Monday release.
Under the terms of the partnership, MCI will be able to offer insurance for investors to back clinical trials, using risk assessments produced by GATC’s platform. According to the release, the new program will enable biotech entrepreneurs to find funding without needing to risk control of their company or dilute their equity.
A 2021 report by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization found that just 7.9% of drug development candidates made it from phase 1 trials to approval between 2011 and 2020.