PrimeLife Completes Nearly RMB 100 Million Pre-A+ Financing to Build China's First End-to-End 'E2E' Digitalized Clinical Research Integrated Platform

VCBeat has learned that Hangzhou Purui Life Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Purui”) completed a Pre-A+ financing round of nearly RMB 100 million in the third quarter of this year. This round was co-led by Qiming Venture Partners and Qiji Capital, with the proceeds to be used forBuilding a Globally Leading Integrated Digital (Intelligent) Clinical Research Platform Based on “EMR-To-EDC” Technology (Abbreviated as E2E) and an AI-Driven Data Governance and Algorithm Matrix, building upon the DCT Operational Technology Innovation Platform, to achieve automation in clinical research data operations, supporting: end-to-end electronic source data traceability, intelligent subject screening, automated CRF data entry, risk-based centralized monitoring, and multi-center interactive research consortia, thereby comprehensively facilitating the automated industrial upgrade of enterprise-sponsored registration-focused clinical trials and hospital-based scientific research in the era of digital innovation.

Purui has pioneered a globally leading Digitalized Clinical Operations Solution (DCOs), with core businesses spanning the entire lifecycle of clinical study execution, analysis, and decision-making. By leveraging deep digitalization and artificial intelligence development within the vertical domain of clinical research, Purui provides automated services for clinical operations, management, and analytical decision-making. It is a technology-driven enterprise that integrates innovative technologies and specialized services in clinical operations and research data integration.

Leveraging technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, Purui has built China’s first integrated digital (smart) clinical research platform based on end-to-end EMR-to-EDC (E2E) electronic source data traceability technology. By integrating clinical diagnosis and treatment workflows with clinical research processes, and enabling automated clinical research data entry along with full-process data traceability audit trails, the platform accelerates the transformation of traditional clinical operations from manual models to digital, intelligent, and automated paradigms. This significantly enhances the level of automation in clinical operations while comprehensively improving the quality and efficiency of clinical scientific research, achieving leapfrog development in both research standardization and operational efficiency.

Wang Zheng, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Puruistated that investors’ continued confidence in Purui stems from its sustained deep dive into the track of digitalization and intelligence in clinical research over the past two-plus years, amid a cooling trend in healthcare digitization during the current economic downturn.

Looking inward, Purui has completed the construction of a high-standard digital and intelligent clinical research technology solution under the “In China, For Global” strategy over the past two years, rapidly achieving commercialization across all business lines and making significant progress in both revenue and contracts.

Looking outward, the booming digital economy, China’s increasingly stringent regulatory requirements for clinical research, the drive for high-quality hospital development, and the growing recognition of the value of “patient-centric” digital clinical trials have all come to the fore. The core value proposition of Purui’s products aligns closely with these trends. Its intelligent digital clinical research technology solutions meet the demands of high-quality international multicenter clinical trials by enhancing efficiency and compliance. By integrating artificial intelligence and big data applications with robust information security and privacy protection technologies, these solutions will effectively promote the high-quality development of hospitals’ clinical research and scientific capabilities.

As global competition in biomedical innovation intensifies, with new methods, technologies, and tools emerging continuously, R&D efficiency has become a core competitive advantage for countries and regions worldwide.

Currently, global clinical research is experiencing an explosive surge in innovation, while the challenges in study design and data management are becoming increasingly severe. On one hand, the design of clinical trial protocols is growing more complex; on the other, the use of real-world data as a key raw material for clinical research further adds to the complexity of study design and data application.

On the other hand, as the complexity of study protocol design continues to increase, the management and operational challenges of clinical trials are becoming increasingly significant. The growing number of participating institutions and subjects, coupled with the heightened complexity in designing clinical endpoints and collecting and analyzing data, has driven up labor costs and data processing difficulties.

According to IQVIA statistics, over the past decade, the number of institutions participating in global multi-center clinical trials, the number of patient subjects, the duration of clinical trials, and the costs of clinical research have all doubled. The pace of clinical development has slowed, thereby shortening the effective patent exclusivity period. Against the global backdrop of advocating for reduced pharmaceutical costs, how to maximize the extension of effective commercial life within the commercial registration period has become an urgent and critical challenge for pharmaceutical companies.

Meanwhile, compared with the world’s leading pharmaceutical markets, China still faces more severe challenges in the standardization and efficiency of clinical research quality.

According to Wang Zheng, although China’s innovative drugs and medical devices have developed rapidly in recent years, the R&D services industry has a relatively short history overall. CROs, SMOs, and clinical research teams are relatively young and lack relevant experience. Issues such as data entry errors and the inability to trace source data, resulting from varying levels of staff professionalism, have become more pronounced. In particular, during the process of manually transcribing clinical research data from hospital systems into enterprise EDC systems, numerous manual entry errors and discrepancies occur.

Various data quality issues arising in clinical operations have led to an increased volume of data queries and corrections, resulting in significant manpower waste and delays in clinical study database locks. This has, to some extent, driven up the cost of clinical research in China; indeed, in certain oncology studies, the average cost per subject is no lower than, and in some cases even exceeds, that in Europe and the United States. Meanwhile, the relative novelty of the industry has led to high turnover among operational staff, posing substantial challenges to quality control in clinical research for hospitals, Good Clinical Practice (GCP) institutions, and pharmaceutical companies alike.

In summary, for China to prevail in the global competition for biomedical innovation, it must enhance its innovative capabilities in clinical research operations, particularly with regard to regulatory compliance.

Against this backdrop, Purui has leveraged big data, artificial intelligence, and other technologies to build China’s first integrated digital platform for clinical research based on end-to-end EMR-to-EDC (E2E) electronic source data traceability. Covering the entire spectrum from pre-marketing to post-marketing studies, the platform fundamentally addresses the fragmentation of data pathways between clinical care and research operations. By transitioning from manual entry to electronic data capture, automated transcription, and risk-based monitoring, it comprehensively enhances both the quality and efficiency of clinical research.

High-Quality Evidence Is a Prerequisite for High-Quality ResearchHowever, traditional clinical diagnosis and treatment pathways remain disconnected from scientific research. The necessity of manually transcribing data from electronic medical records (EMRs) and health archives into Electronic Data Capture (EDC) systems inevitably creates gaps in data quality and standardization.

As China’s first integrated digital clinical research platform based on end-to-end EMR-to-EDC (E2E) electronic source data traceability technology, the E2E Platform fundamentally addresses the historical disconnect between clinical care and research operations by seamlessly integrating and harmonizing their workflows, thereby comprehensively enhancing trial efficiency.

In terms of data entry, the platform has transitioned from manual input to electronic data capture. By leveraging artificial intelligence technologies such as big data, natural language processing (NLP), and medical knowledge graphs, it achieves unified governance and automatic transcription of multi-center clinical research data in accordance with international standards. This approach minimizes manual intervention and enhances the authenticity, accuracy, and completeness of data entry.

Finally, in compliance with national cybersecurity, data security, and personal information protection regulations, the platform further safeguards patient data security and expands the compliant and secure use of hospital data across diverse clinical research scenarios.

Based on the aforementioned capabilities, the E2E platform is also the first remote intelligent clinical research data collection and monitoring system in China that meets the requirements for conducting international multi-center clinical trials.

From an industry-wide perspective, Purui’s system provides strong endorsement for the data quality and regulatory compliance of clinical research in China. It not only achieves faster clinical trial timelines and better cost-effectiveness but, more importantly, enables seamless integration into the global clinical research collaboration network and innovation ecosystem.

Currently, the market size of clinical CROs in China is approximately RMB 150 billion to 180 billion. About 60%–70% of R&D costs are incurred in patient recruitment, clinical study data entry, and data monitoring phases, among which roughly two-thirds of on-site data entry and monitoring tasks can be automated through digital and intelligent technologies.

Therefore, Purui’s solution targets the 60%–70% cost optimization market within clinical research operations, encompassing stages such as patient recruitment, clinical trial data entry, and data monitoring, with a potential market size approaching RMB 100 billion. “Our goal is to collaborate with sponsors and the CRO industry to comprehensively automate and replace processes across the entire lifecycle of this market segment,” said Wang Zheng.

Currently, Purui has established strategic partnerships and completed system deployments with over 30 Grade A tertiary hospitals across multiple regions in China, including large general Grade A tertiary hospitals and nationally renowned specialized hospitals. Meanwhile, strategic collaborations with more than 100 hospitals nationwide are being rapidly advanced and implemented.

Meanwhile, Purui actively maintains communication with regulatory authorities and engages in academic discussions, interacting with relevant departments and academic institutions on regulatory science topics concerning “new tools, new methods, and new standards” for registration-level clinical trials. Furthermore, Purui proactively conducts academic seminars with industry experts on end-to-end (E2E) applications and has established an expert committee under the guidance of the National Health Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to provide professional guidance and technical support for the exploration and implementation of E2E applications.

While actively expanding its domestic market in China, Purui is also looking outward to explore opportunities in overseas markets. The company is currently developing an international multilingual version of its E2E platform and plans to begin expanding into emerging international markets in the first half of next year.

Looking ahead, the Company will further strengthen in-depth collaboration with domestic and international clinical research institutions and research-oriented hospitals on the R&D front, continuously optimizing the E2E platform to enhance the overall efficiency of clinical studies. On the enterprise front, PuRui will also comprehensively launch pilot projects of various types to further accelerate commercialization.

Born out of the digital transformation needs of the CRO industry and bound by a deep strategic partnership with IQVIA, a Fortune 500 company, PuRui has cultivated a unique corporate DNA through its global perspective and locally innovative talent team. Accordingly, PuRui envisions becoming a global clinical R&D technology enterprise rooted in China’s digital and medical innovations. It aims to practically support the leapfrog development and rapid growth of China’s clinical research industry while integrating into global innovations in digital clinical research, ultimately emerging as a global unicorn in the field of digital clinical research.

Regarding this round of financing,Mao Shuo, Executive Director of Qiming Venture PartnersIt was stated that clinical research has always been the most time-, effort-, and capital-intensive stage in the journey of medical products from the laboratory to patients. Primarius focuses on innovatively addressing this bottleneck through AI and digital solutions, having developed a comprehensive suite of intelligent digital clinical research solutions within just two years. These solutions have gained recognition from multiple top-tier hospitals and international pharmaceutical companies. Qiming Venture Partners will continue to support such pioneering teams with strong execution capabilities, helping enterprises leverage technology to drive innovation in clinical research and transform digital health service models.

Ms. Zhang Li, Founding Managing Partner of Qiji InvestmentIt was stated that digitalization and intelligence represent the development trend of clinical trials. Clinical trials involve numerous project partners, span extended durations and vast geographic regions, and present significant coordination challenges. The application of digital and intelligent tools can reduce costs, enhance efficiency, shorten timelines, and improve trial quality. Purui, incubated by IQVIA, a global leader in clinical CRO services, is led by a core management team under Wang Zheng. This team comprises global talents with interdisciplinary expertise in clinical research, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies, combining the highest industry-standard SOPs of clinical CROs with the key success factors for globalized products.