SAN DIEGO, Calif.–M&B Sciences Inc, a fast-growing African-American owned, technology-driven clinical research organization, announces the acquisition of Clara Health, a company dedicated to using technology to increase access to clinical trials. The acquisition was finalized March 1, 2022. The acquisition of the company will expand M&B Sciences’ mission to make clinical trials accessible to all.   

“This is one of the largest African-American health care acquistions ever,” said John William Templeton, chair of the Dr. T. Nathaniel Burbridge Center for Inclusive Innovation in southeast San Francisco.  “M&B is among our Ten to a Billion companies that we see charting a new path for African-American business.”

With the addition of Clara Health, based in San Francisco, CA, and its innovative patient recruitment and retention technology platform, M&B Sciences has enhanced its ability to bring decentralized and hybrid trial technology tools to its clients while also maintaining its core values of ensuring patient centricity and diversity within clinical trials. Both M&B Sciences and Clara Health were founded on the principle of creating and leveraging technology to bring efficiency in clinical trials and democratize access to clinical trials for ALL communities. The combined company will move forward as M&B Sciences Inc.

“We are excited about the advancement in patient recruitment technology that Clara Health brings with its innovative Clara Platform. We believe this innovation, combined with the significant technological investment that we’ve already made into NeighborhoodTrials.com, positions M&B Sciences to be a leader in the patient recruitment and retention space. Over the next several months we will be working to integrate the Clara Platform with the NeighborhoodTrialsplatform to combine the best of the patient recruitment and retention services of each, along with the unique spatial epidemiology aspects of NeighborhoodTrials.com. This integration will position M&B as a leader in patient recruitment and retention with a focus on increasing underrepresented populations in clinical trials. The combination of the two companies will allow M&B to provide an even greater depth and breadth of expertise while continuing to support a dynamic, inclusive, and supportive trial experience for patients and providers,” said Dr. Eddilisa Martin, CEO of M&B Sciences Inc.   She is among the BlackBio100 honored on March 5 during the Roy L. Clay Sr. Technology Pinnacle Awards.

“This acquisition is an important milestone for both companies,” said M&B’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Scott Schliebner, an industry expert on patient-focused drug development and rare disease clinical trials. “With the addition of Clara Health’s technology platform integrated with M&B’s neighborhoodtrials.com patient recruiting platform, we will be able to not only better serve existing clients but also expand their reach and support new customers. Moreover, having Clara Health’s experienced team and their expertise will allow us to successfully scale and accelerate the solutions we provide for our biotech and pharma customers.”

Clara Health’s Co-founders, Evan Ehrenberg and Sol Chen, founded Clara Health in 2015 and have served more than thirty (30) biotech and pharmaceutical clients and contributed to the success of their clinical trials through implementation of innovative patient centric technology tools.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About M&B Sciences Inc

Based in San Diego California, M&B Sciences Inc is a technology driven contract research organization that provides patient recruitment, patient engagement, trial operations, project management, data analytics, and post surveillance marketing research to its biotechnology, pharmaceutical and healthcare customers; for more information, visit www.mbsciences.com.

About Clara Health

Today, clinical trials are the longest and most expensive step in bringing a new treatment to market, and over 80% of trials run are delayed due to difficulty finding participants. Clara Health was created in 2015 from a collaboration with patient advocates to make it simple and approachable to find and connect to clinical trials that fit them best. The platform has since expanded to support protocol design, site selection, and retention as well.

In democratizing access to clinical trials for all patients from all socioeconomic backgrounds Clara Health aimed to make healthcare more diverse, open, and welcoming.