Recent scientific breakthroughs are bringing a wave of groundbreaking new drugs to patients. From CAR-T cell therapies that can cure certain cancers to precise gene-editing treatments that cure devastating genetic disorders, the pace of innovation is unprecedented. Biopharma companies invest over $250 billion annually to develop these novel therapies, and the pipeline of new treatments has never been larger. Yet, despite this surge of investment and innovation, bringing a new drug to market takes longer and costs more than ever.

Clinical trials have become the primary bottleneck to getting drugs to market. The industry has been stagnant for decades and faces three key challenges. First, access to trials is limited. Patient recruitment and trial execution remain highly manual and labor-intensive, with fewer than 5% of patients participating in trials. Second, complexity is increasing. As medicines become more targeted, fewer patients qualify for each trial, making it harder to find the right patient at the right time. Third, the data infrastructure is outdated, adding friction and cost to the trial planning and execution process.

And the problem is getting worse. AI is accelerating drug discovery, producing exponentially more drug candidates that will need to be tested in humans. With the clinical trial system already at a breaking point, we desperately need a new paradigm — one with AI at its core.

At DFJ Growth, we have been searching for a solution. Today, we’re excited to announce our investment in Paradigm Health, a company on a mission to bring equitable access to clinical trials for any patient, anywhere. Paradigm leverages AI to power faster, more efficient clinical trials. The company bridges the gap between healthcare providers (trial “sites”) and drug developers (“sponsors”) by creating an intelligent layer between them.

For sites, Paradigm’s AI integrates into routine workflows to automate patient-trial matching, streamline clinical trial processes, and surface new trials that the site can serve. This enables sites to increase trial volume without additional staff and enables community sites to participate in trials. Sites love Paradigm because they can offer patients cutting-edge therapies while reducing operating costs, generating revenue, and increasing provider satisfaction.

For sponsors, Paradigm improves all aspects of a trial: design, site selection, patient recruitment, and study execution. Because of its deep integration with sites, Paradigm’s AI can scan records for millions of patients to help sponsors fine-tune their protocols, select the right sites, and ultimately enroll patients faster. Paradigm also automates clinical data transfer between sites and sponsors, significantly reducing costs and time to study completion.

Paradigm fits squarely into a long-standing DFJ Growth thesis of backing unique technology companies that are enabling and transforming entire industries — like Anduril in defense and national security, Coinbase in blockchain, SpaceX for space commercialization, Unity in gaming and interactive 3D, and Cellares for cell therapy manufacturing. Similarly, Paradigm is strategically positioned to accelerate clinical development of therapeutics, including the boom emerging from AI-driven drug discovery.

Another core DFJ Growth thesis is that AI will fundamentally transform enterprise workflows, unlocking increased efficiency and new solutions. Paradigm enables sites to screen every patient across hundreds of trials and is rapidly becoming the core interface by which sites find patients. The Paradigm team has done the hard work of integrating their AI deeply into the healthcare system so that patients can be offered trials at the right point in their care journey.

Paradigm's Jonathan Hirsch and Kent Thoelke

We’ve followed Paradigm since its founding, building on a decade-long relationship with Co-Founder Jonathan Hirsch. Jonathan and Founder/CEO Kent Thoelke lead a world-class team uniquely positioned to unite sites and sponsors. Kent previously spent over 15 years at PRA Health Sciences, a contract research organization that ran clinical trials for the world’s leading sponsors, and was chief scientific officer when it was acquired by ICON for $12 billion in 2021. Jonathan previously founded Syapse, a real-world evidence company working with providers and sponsors to improve cancer care. We can’t imagine a duo better suited to revolutionize clinical trials.

We are proud to partner with Kent, Jonathan, and the entire Paradigm team. Their vision of leveraging AI to screen every patient for every trial will help bring new therapies to patients faster — a critical step toward a world where we all live longer, healthier lives.