Boston-based Antidote Technologies expects it will soon be able to accelerate the development of capabilities for its trial matching platform – including precision medicine and EHR matching. That’s because the company has just entered into an agreement for an $11 million funding round led by Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, and joined by existing investors Smedvig Capital and Octopus Ventures. Regulatory clearances still need to come through, but that’s expected to happen later this year.

A lot of clinical trials are delayed or closed because of a lack of patients taking part; Antidote estimates the number at about 80 percent. The company wants to put a dent in those numbers by changing the way patients and researchers connect. With its clinical and AI prowess, Antidote has created Match, a clinical trial matching platform currently serving around 180 patient communities – JDRF, Lung Cancer Alliance, and Healthline among them – bringing new studies to millions of patients on a monthly basis.

Patients answer simple questions about their health, and the platform provides matching studies in their neighborhood.

“We are excited to back Antidote given the company’s focus on solving the critical issue of matching patients with the right clinical trials,” said Francesca Wuttke, managing director at Merck GHI. “We think the Antidote approach fits well with our focus on investing in companies that play a critical role in the new digital clinical trial management ecosystem.”

Antidote Match is based on generating structured eligibility criteria, proprietary algorithms, and machine learning. To date, the company has made 14,000 clinical trials matchable and plans to reach full coverage of US trials next year with enhanced capabilities, such as matching cancer patients to studies using mutation-level data. The company is already a participant in the Cancer Moonshot project.

This year, Antidote has made its clinical trial matching platform accessible to the pharmaceutical industry with Match API, a web and mobile app layer that allows any organization to match patients to their portfolio or program of trials and build insights. The company is also piloting the Beta of Antidote Base, a SaaS offering that enables research sites to invite local, engaged patients to participate in their studies.

“We couldn't wish for a better endorsement of Antidote’s high-scale ecosystem approach to patient engagement than this round led by Merck GHI, a fund that has a deep understanding of the problem we are solving,” said Antidote founder and CEO Pablo Graiver in a statement. “We are also grateful for the continued support from Octopus Ventures and Smedvig Capital. Antidote is excited to embark on the next stage of transforming medical research to deliver new treatments faster to the people who need them.”