Just weeks after its highly anticipated launch, Driver — a startup that uses an app to match cancer patients with clinical trials — has shut down, according to STAT.
The San Francisco-based startup laid off nearly all its employees Oct. 16 after running out of money. The startup launched in September.
Driver was attempting to secure another round of funding this fall but was unable to raise the money fast enough.
Before it flopped, the startup had secured financial backing from Hong Kong's richest man and partnerships with 30 cancer centers, including top U.S. hospitals like Cleveland Clinic and Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic.
But none of the hospitals paid Driver as part of the relationship, and the startup was unable to finalize any deals with drugmakers or insurers.
Instead, the company first attempted to be a direct-to-consumer app, marketing its product directly to cancer patients. Driver charged cancer patients $3,000 upfront, plus a $20 monthly fee for a service that analyzes their tumor sample and medical record to recommend options for clinical trials and ease the referral process.
The company planned to eventually sign up drug companies as paying customers, because the app would help them find clinical trial participants faster. The company's co-founder, William Polkinghorn, MD, told STAT he regrets not prioritizing other revenue streams earlier.
"We needed to bring on revenue a lot sooner than we did — as opposed to maybe spending as much time and resources building such a robust solution," Dr. Polkinghorn told STAT.
Now, the startup plans to monetize as much as it can from the technology it developed, including the machine that can analyze tumors and its clinical trial navigation app.
Read the full report here.