How Feldan Therapeutics uses “kill sheets” to make data driven decisions about clinical development

Navigating information overload effectively

Feldan Therapeutics is a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in developing treatments based on the intracellular delivery of therapeutics. Put simply, the company has developed a proprietary technology that enables the safe and efficient delivery of various therapeutics inside cells. By giving access to intracellular components beyond the reach of existing treatments, Feldan’s technology is creating new opportunities in drug development.

In a highly dynamic and specialized market, VP of Finance & Business Development Vincent Ménard and Strategic Development Project Manager Jean-Pascal (JP) Lepetit-Stoffaes are responsible for the monitoring of new growth opportunities. Data plays a crucial role in informing their decisions, but often there’s too much of it. To filter out unimportant updates and find the right insights, Feldan’s business team has turned to STAT Trials Pulse by AppliedXL.

Less time searching for data means more time to make decisions

Historically, the process of scanning the clinical trials landscape for new data and insights has been mostly manual at Feldan. Having access to a tool like STAT Trials Pulse by AppliedXL, which allows new clinical trial data to be continuously updated across multiple sources, was therefore a game-changer for the small company. Ménard and Lepetit-Stoffaes realized that they could accelerate their data-gathering process by leveraging this new tool, allowing them to operate strategically.

“As a small biopharmaceutical company, we don’t have all the resources of a large company. We must be agile in the way we work,” explained Ménard.

Staying on top of the latest clinical trial information allows the Canadian company to create internal strategic alignment, to accelerate decision-making and to better articulate its positioning to investors.

“It’s crucial to have a platform that allows us to save time by not having to go through multiple websites to build our analysis. That’s why STAT Trials Pulse is very useful to us: It makes our daily work easier and more efficient,” said Lepetit-Stoffaes.

Using data to know what projects to kill early

Accessing data is one thing; analyzing it effectively is another. With new data now at their fingertips, Feldan’s business team developed a core evaluation approach to identify which projects to pursue, and which ones to drop. The so-called kill sheet provides a framework that helps the team assess the scientific validity, competitive landscape, market size, and clinical feasibility of projects under evaluation. This analysis guides whether the company should proceed with a specific project and thus spend valuable resources on preclinical development and clinical trials, or stop it.

“We need to make sure we are spending the right amount of time evaluating projects. Since we cannot work on multiple things at once, we need to quickly and efficiently identify the projects that turn out to have little potential and “kill” them. That way, we can focus on the ones that have the most chance of working in the long run,” said Ménard.

In addition to helping Feldan’s team to streamline their project pipeline, STAT Trials Pulse by AppliedXL also allows them to collect strategic context around status changes, and monitor roadblocks that other sponsors encounter. By setting up automated monitoring of comparable studies, Ménard and Lepetit-Stoffaes have been able to evaluate potential challenges to their own projects.“When our competitors interrupt their trials, we need to understand whether it could stem from drug availability issues, or target issues. In this former situation, we can show an edge by proposing a technology that may deliver the drug more efficiently,” they explained. With its smart filters and event detection platform, STAT Trials Pulse by AppliedXL is saving the team valuable time in the research process, allowing Feldan Therapeutics to assess their opportunities faster and continue to innovate.

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