Paradigm Health announced a $78M Series B financing and acquired Flatiron Health’s clinical research business - a move that instantly creates the largest integrated oncology research network in the United States, covering 2,100 care locations and reaching approximately 70% of the U.S. cancer population.
For too long, clinical trials have been antiquated and accessible only to a small subset of patients-primarily those treated at large academic centers. As Ken Frazier, former Merck CEO and Paradigm board member, has emphasized, this lack of representation leads to slower drug development, higher costs, and data that fails to reflect the diverse patient populations who ultimately receive new therapies.
Paradigm is changing that reality.
By integrating Paradigm’s AI-powered platform with Flatiron’s community oncology network and OncoEMR®, clinical trials can now be embedded directly into routine care. Providers get streamlined workflows. Sponsors get higher-quality, more representative data. And patients -especially those in community and rural settings finally get access to the cutting-edge therapies they’ve historically been excluded from.
This is what bold leadership and modern technology can achieve. As CEO Kent Thoelke reminds us: “Clinical trials are how we learn about innovative medicines. But too many patients never get to participate - especially those outside academic centers. Their perspectives don’t show up in data, and that inequity ultimately shows up in their care.”
With the scale unlocked through this acquisition, Paradigm’s network can match patients to trials in minutes by reading more than 100,000 patient records at a time. The result is a system that accelerates development timelines, lowers costs for drugmakers, and brings life-saving treatments to patients faster.
This milestone builds on Paradigm’s growing global ecosystem, including partnerships with Japan’s National Cancer Center, New York Cancer & Blood Specialists, Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and Florida Cancer Specialists, each expanding access, improving trial efficiencies, and reaching more diverse populations.
Clinical trials remain one of the most critical but most inaccessible components of cancer care. While more than 70% of patients are willing to participate, fewer than 5% ultimately enroll, contributing to delays in nearly 80% of trials despite $2B spent annually on recruitment. Because trial access has been limited to patients treated at major academic centers, community and rural populations are dramatically underserved. Paradigm is establishing a new standard: a world where a patient’s ZIP code no longer determines their access to care.
At Magnetic, we focus on the biggest challenges in healthcare and back the innovators bold enough to solve them. Clinical trials stood out early as an area where technology could have an extraordinary impact on patient access, trial efficiency, and overall drug development. That conviction and Kent Thoekle's vision and leadership led us to invest in Paradigm at its inception.
Today, Paradigm continues to validate that belief. The company is building the leading AI-powered platform for clinical trial innovation -one designed to meet patients where they are, support providers with streamlined workflows, and deliver more representative, higher-quality data to sponsors. While Paradigm began by transforming oncology research, its platform will expand into neuroscience, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and beyond.
This is a real example of what it looks like when advanced technology directly improves patient lives. And, this is the future of clinical research.