The Conference Forum Announces Tasso Wins DPharm Idol Disrupt 2019 for Patient-Centric Blood Sampling Kits
Tasso was announced the winner of DPharm Idol Disrupt at the 9th annual DPharm: Disrupting Innovations to Advance Clinical Trials Conference. Tasso has a service that provides patient centric blood-sampling kits for use by participants in clinical trials. Tasso’s goal is to eliminate the need for site visits, and to lower the costs and inconvenience associated with traditional blood sampling methods. Tasso aims to provide a clinical trial participant a ready made kit for blood sampling with easy to understand instructions for at-home self blood sampling, much of the patient burden for gathering blood data is eliminated.
Tasso had six minutes to present their aims in disrupting the current paradigm of clinical trials, and pitch their product to DPharm’s esteemed panel of judges, which consisted of:
Sandra Freeman
GCO U.S. Director, MAO Supported Studies, Johnson & Johnson
Cindy Geoghegan
Cancer Veteran and Patient Advocate
Hassan Kadhim
Director, Head of Clinical Trial Business Capabilities, BMS
Ülo Palm, MD, PhD,
SVP and Head, Digital Science, Allergan
Douglas Schantz
Executive Director, Development Operations, Astrazeneca
Jessica Scott, MD, JD,
Head of R&D Patient Engagement, Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Mark Travers, PhD, MBA,
VP, HEad of GCTO REgions, Monitoring Excellence, Global Operations, Merck & Co
Whereas in previous DPharm Idols judges have deliberated for upwards of two hours, this years deliberation took only twenty minutes. Judges were taken by the ease of use, potential cost savings, and potential to radically change the methodology by which blood sampling is conducted in clinical trials. When asked to elaborate on their reasoning the judges stated:
”Tasso’s blood draw product impressed the DPharm Idol judges because it lay one more building block in the journey towards decentralizing clinical trials by enabling the collection of blood samples in an easy and seamless manner from the patient’s home. The potential combination of Tasso’s blood sample collection device with digital tools makes the promise of bringing the trial to the patient much closer to reality and it adds one more tool in the arsenal to enable patient centric clinical trials for the immediate future and beyond.”
The judges further stated that the length of time taken for them to deliberate in no way indicated that it was an easy decision and in fact gave TrialScout a big shout out for their second runner up. By all accounts, Tasso had strong competition from the other presenters which included:
TrialScout
Irfan Khan, MD, CEO
xCures
Mika Newton, CEO
Shimmer Research
Geoff Gill, President
Intelligencia
Vangelis Vergetis, PhD, Co-Founder
Trials.ai
Kim Walpole, Founder and CEO
DPharm Idol is the signature event that took place at the 9th annual iteration of DPharm: Disruptive Innovations to Advance Clinical Trials. DPharm, organized by the Conference Forum, reports on industry and out of industry innovation and how to change the paradigm of clinical trials to reduce the burden to patients and investigators, streamline processes and ultimately get therapeutics to patients faster. DPharm connects pharma, biotech, clinical research partners, as well as patient advocacy to inspire and encourage the most innovative technologies and ideas in clinical trials and drug development. Mark your calendars for next year’s event, which will be held September 22-23, 2020 in Boston.
About the Conference Forum
The Conference Forum is a life science industry research firm that develops conferences primarily around how to get therapeutics to patients faster. They examine and challenge the complex ecosystem of drug development and delivery, bringing ideas together from a variety of sources to help advance clinical research with common goals that are patient-focused. For more information, visit http://www.theconferenceforum.org
About Tasso:
Tasso is about creating a patient centric clinical trial experience through the use of its innovative and ergonomic at-home blood sampling kits. (Early access partnership with Merck, and registering with the FDA next week, have secured 14 million in funding since founding Tasso) For more information visit https://www.tassoinc.com
