Auxilius replaces Excel to automate biopharma clinical trial finances

The cure for cancer is currently being managed by a 30-tab Excel file. Run-of-the-mill financial software tools are simply not enough for the complexity of clinical trials. The average biotech uses several horizontal accounting software tools for their enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, payments, and close management.

But the most important line item is being managed outside those tools—clinical R&D can represent up to 70% of a biotech’s cost structure and is notoriously difficult to predict. Disparate data is spread across clinical and financial technology stacks, making it hard to get a comprehensive financial view. To make matters even more complicated, most clinical R&D activities are outsourced across clinical research organizations (CROs), subvendors, and sites, adding layers of complexity, dependencies, and data lags.

Auxilius is the only FP&A and accounting solution that was purpose-built to manage the complexity of clinical trials. That's why SignalFire has just led a $10 million funding round for Auxilius.

The product allows finance departments in biopharma to replace unruly Excel trackers (or consultants) that attempt to generate expense estimates for clinical R&D. The return-on-investment story is threefold: (1) cost and time savings; (2) increased accuracy in financial forecasts and estimates by having a single source of truth; and (3) compliance and audit readiness.

Why does this matter? Overaccruing can result in incorrect cash allocation, and being a “little bit wrong” can result in tens of millions of incorrectly allocated dollars in the case of R&D budgets for biopharma. Trial operations are less about science than the coordination of outsourced vendors, vendor spend, capital, and risk. Because of the complexity and high spend of clinical R&D, any degree of moving the needle in accounting is a big deal.

Auxilius collects data from electronic data capture (EDC) systems, contracts, and disparate documents into a single source of truth while integrating with ERP systems. By extracting key contract terms and trial assumptions from these data sources, Auxilius allows users to manage costs at the study and vendor level in context, regardless of complexity. The product integrates seamlessly with existing tools and workflows.

Since launching the product 18 months ago, Auxilius has helped dozens of biotech and pharma companies streamline and automate study planning, financial forecasting, and accrual workflows. Auxilius is built off of clinical drivers, and it provides scenario modeling on currently active trials as well as invoice generation for site payments. Auxilius can address this pain point in large pharma as well—Amgen, for instance, has several study planners who spend about a third of their time doing scenario analysis during the year.

"We don’t have a lot of extra manpower to check on things so [Auxilius] has been exceedingly helpful. It saves us 3–4 days a month of a clinical trial manager’s time—it is also more accurate."
—CFO at NeoTX

“We were approaching clinical stage and quickly Excel sheets start to become cumbersome. Models start cracking and breaking, or just a pain. So, we began looking for systems to support scale. … We now rely 100% on the Auxilius tool and our auditors are comfortable with it."
—Senior VP of Finance at PMV Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

We couldn’t be more excited to partner with this visionary team to transform the future of clinical trial financial management. Adam Weisman and Erin Warner Guill first crossed paths at Clarivate (formerly DRG Digital), where they gained firsthand experience working with customers in the life sciences industry. We were immediately impressed with Adam and Erin’s deep industry expertise and ability to speak their customers’ language. From our conversations with early customers, several pointed out how thoughtful Adam and Erin were in deeply understanding their needs, and it was clear that they were uniquely positioned to build this company. 

Auxilius marks a significant leap forward in addressing the complex financial management challenges inherent in clinical trial operations within biopharma. As we look ahead, the impact of Auxilius extends beyond mere efficiency gains; it holds the potential to revolutionize how clinical R&D expenses are managed, empowering biotech and pharma companies to allocate resources more effectively and accelerate the pace of innovation in medical breakthroughs.