Untapped Ventures Invests in Radicle Science's Seed Round to Transform Nutraceutical Clinical Trials

Radicle Science Pioneers a New Era in Health Research, Democratizing Access to Rigorous Clinical Trials for Non-Pharmaceutical Products with Cutting-Edge AI Technology

This B-Corp is on a mission to create a future of proven, personalized treatments accessible for all.

Pharmaceutical drug companies go through years of expensive investigative trials to prove the efficacy of their new treatments before going to market. However, these traditional clinical trials have been simply too expensive and slow for unpatentable wellness products, making it difficult  for non-pharmaceutical companies to access rigorous clinical evidence to make health claims around effectiveness. A recent update to the health products compliance guidance by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), their first in nearly 25 years, heightens the regulatory scrutiny and crackdowns on health claims by non-pharmaceutical products, creating an urgent need for the over $81B US wellness industry to ensure compliance, making now the opportune moment to prioritize transparency and integrity in health claims as well as truth in advertising. Further fueling this market shift, consumers and retailers are also  increasingly demanding proof of effectiveness. The McKinsey 2024 Future of Wellness Study found “efficacy and scientific credibility have emerged as the most important factors to consumers when selecting wellness products.”

Radicle Science is history’s first Proof-as-a-Service company, offering non-prescription health and wellness products history’s first easy and affordable path to clinically demonstrate their true effects beyond placebo. The outcome is first-of-its-kind personalized proof of effectiveness across diverse conditions and populations delivered unprecedented affordability, speed, and scale. Now any wellness product can access Proof-as-a-Service throughout their lifecycle to develop truly effective products, market strong health claims, increase customer loyalty, and win trust among retailers, doctors, and investors.

Pelin Thorogood M.Eng/MBA, cofounder and executive chairwoman of the healthtech B-corporation, is a serial tech entrepreneur / analytics expert and was named an Inc 200 Female Founder in 2023.  As a philanthropic funder of clinical trials at top national universities, Thorogood witnessed firsthand the barriers many companies and consumers face due to the traditional clinical research processes.

Her cofounder, Dr. Jeff Chen MD/MBA, a physician/scientist who led natural product clinical trials at UCLA, also felt impassioned to transform what he viewed as a broken system and broaden the diversity gap in research.

Most participants of typical clinical trials are Caucasian males in metropolitan areas, even though White males comprise 30% of the U.S. population. This leaves out women, minorities, and individuals living in rural communities, which can have major health consequences. In fact. 80% of prescription drug recalls are due to unanticipated side effects experienced by female consumers. “I realized that the data we were getting from these very expensive clinical trials was not actually meaningful or generalizable to the population at large,” Thorogood shared to Fast Company. “So to me, that was a massive problem that had to be tackled if we are to achieve much needed health equity.”  

Adding to the list of inefficiencies to modern clinical research are the exorbitant costs and long, drawn-out timeframes associated with large-scale research. In 2016, the median price of a single clinical trial was $19 million and the total cost of drug development sits at an estimated $2-3 billion. Not to mention, it takes on average more than 10 years for a drug in development to receive FDA approval to reach the hands of consumers. This has created a major gap to easy access to clinical trials for non-pharmaceutical supplement companies, who often do not have the same financial resources as pharmaceutical giants to fund their studies. 

These major barriers influenced Pelin Thorogood and Dr. Jeff Chen to pioneer the proof-as-a-service category with their company, Radicle Science. Their vision is to elevate the non-pharmaceutical industry by providing a fast and affordable way to demonstrate product effectiveness beyond placebo with gold-standard, AI-driven, direct-to-consumer clinical trials. 

At a fraction of the time and costs, supplement companies can now access large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials. Radicle Science empowers supplement manufacturers to ensure the safety of their products with a more diverse group of consumers, including women, minorities, and rural populations. Consumers are able to participate in trials from the comforts of their homes and complete check-ins on their smartphones. Moreover, participants in Radicle Science trials receive personalized health reports with product usage and outcomes after the completion of each study, providing added incentives to participants. 

Since their launch, Radicle Science has studied over 40,000 Americans across diverse populations on dozens of dietary supplements. Their studies have been published in peer reviewed publications, including Nutrients and Journal of American Nutrition Association. Additionally, the health tech company has received broad industry recognition, including winning the data design category in Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards, Startup of the Year by Nutraingredients USA, being named a Fast Company World Changing Idea and a KPMG “top 10 Tech Innovator”. 

Joining forces with Radicle Science are luminaries such as Peter Diamandis (XPRIZE founder), Dr. Jonathan Fielding (Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA, White House advisor), Joe Dickson (former Global Director of Quality Standards at Whole Foods), Pamela Harbour (former Commissioner of the FTC), Tom Aarts (Nutrition Business Journal Co-founder), and Rhona Applebaum (Coca Cola’s first Chief Science and Health Officer).

At Untapped Ventures, we are staunch advocates of companies that elevate humanity to new depths previously unimaginable with AI-driven technologies. We are thrilled to join forces with Pelin Thorogood and Dr. Jeff Chen in their mission to transform diversity, access, and affordability to clinical trials. By participating in their seed stage of funding, we are not only investing in their innovative vision but also affirming our commitment to advancing groundbreaking initiatives that have the potential to revolutionize healthcare for generations to come.