Debiopharm leads $6M round for YonaLink to Scale Global Growth and Fuel Expansion of Platform Designed to Stream Clinical Trial Data

SaaS Platform Provides Missing Link in Clinical Trial Data Collection, Securely Automating Real-Time Transfer of Up-to-Date Patient Data Directly from EHRs to EDC Systems

Technology Brings New Levels of Speed, Quality and Efficiency to Clinical Trial Data Collection and Validation Across the Globe and Therapeutic Areas

BOSTON and LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Debiopharm Innovation Fund, the strategic investment arm of Swiss biopharmaceutical company Debiopharm, and YonaLink, a clinical trial software provider, today announced having completed an initial funding round, raising $6 million, to scale global growth and expand YonaLink's EHR-to-EDC integration platform. Purpose-built to stream and map up-to-date patient data, in real time, YonaLink's SaaS solution exports patient data directly from a clinical site's EHR system and transfers it into clinical research electronic data capture (EDC) systems.

Debiopharm Innovation Fund in Switzerland led the round. Co-funded by the European Union, the round also included Israel's eHealth Ventures. The total $6 million investment will be used to bring more talent to the company's growing team, expand the YonaLink platform's capabilities, and drive its adoption among clinical trial sponsors and their clinical research organization (CRO) partners.

"YonaLink is bridging the gap between patient care and clinical research, providing the missing link in clinical trial data collection and validation with technology that securely provides true EHR-to-EDC connectivity, without disrupting existing clinical trial workflows," said Iddo Peleg, YonaLink's CEO and co-founder. "We're excited to bring our technology to more clinical trials – beginning with the US, Europe, and Israel – to help fuel innovation in clinical development and accelerate the delivery of important new treatments to patients across disease states and therapeutic areas."

YonaLink's platform has the capabilities to stream up-to-date data from any clinical site's EHR system, in any part of the world, and populate it within YonaLink's next generation EDC or other data capture systems. With built-in eConsent and ePRO / eCOA and streaming EHR-to-EDC capabilities, YonaLink's next generation EDC provides a comprehensive solution for today's clinical trial needs, bringing EDC and eSource functionality together in a single tool.

"Real-world data from electronic health records has long been an untapped resource for clinical trials, one which could boost clinical trial efficiency, improve patient outcomes and, ultimately, make research data collection a by-product of routine clinical record keeping," said Vincent Lepreux, Associate Director of Debiopharm Innovation Fund. "We invested in YonaLink because we believe that the way clinical trials have been conducted in the past has to be radically disrupted. YonaLink's data streaming technology drills into one of the clear inefficiencies in drug development – moving data from EHRs to EDCs. No one should be doing that manually anymore."

Ophir Shahaf, Partner at eHealth Ventures, added: "While clinical trial data capture and management has evolved from paper to software, they are still labor-intensive and largely manual processes. YonaLink is changing the paradigm with a solution that provides true automation. This technology can be used to help reduce the burden on research sites, lower trial costs, and enable efficiencies that speed time to market for clinical trial sponsors. That, in turn, makes a meaningful difference for patients who are waiting for new treatments, which is why we are excited to be part of YonaLink's journey and this recent funding round."

YonaLink equips research teams with the ability to extract up-to-date patient data from an EHR and stream that data into a clinical trial electronic data capture (EDC) system in real time, reducing clinical trial timelines and costs. Headquartered in Boston with R&D operations in Israel, YonaLink is bringing new levels of speed, quality, and efficiency to clinical trial operations across the globe, simplifying the complexity of clinical data collection and validation, and enabling true scalability. The Company's SaaS platform has the capabilities to stream up-to-date data from any clinical site's EHR platform, in any part of the world, and populate it within YonaLink's next generation EDC or other data capture systems. With built-in eConsent and ePRO / eCOA and streaming EHR-to-EDC capabilities, YonaLink's next generation EDC provides a comprehensive solution for today's clinical trial needs, bringing EDC and eSource functionality together in a single tool that can be set up within minutes, eliminating integration delays, reducing costs, and accelerating study timelines. Learn more at www.yonalink.com.

Debiopharm Innovation Fund, the strategic investment arm of Swiss biopharmaceutical company Debiopharm, provides strategic funding and guidance for companies with an ambition to improve the patient journey, re-imagine how clinical trials are conducted, along with companies offering digital platforms that support cutting-edge drug technologies. Since 2017 Debiopharm has invested in 14 digital health companies, typically leading the investment rounds.

The eHealth Ventures partnership is a leading investor in early-stage digital health companies. It includes 2 VC funds and a technological incubator with an exclusive focus on digital health and significant government non-dilutive funding. Partners include Maccabi (a leading Israeli HMO), Amgen (global biotech giant), the Mayo Clinic, Medison Ventures, Arad Investments, and the Hadar Group. The team has reviewed over 1,600 companies to date and invested in a portfolio of 24 highly innovative companies (digital diagnostics, therapeutics, home care and Bioconvergence). Their focus is to find, fund and grow promising early-stage digital health companies. They work closely with the star entrepreneurs, the true innovators, the game-changers of this exciting industry.