// startup autopsy

ETrials Worldwide

Digital clinical trials before pharma was ready to go digital.

timingFire Sale

Distressed acquisition below last-round valuation · Fatal mistake: Entered the electronic clinical trials market before pharma companies were operationally and culturally ready to adopt EDC software at scale.

Founded	1999
Closed	2005
Country	USA
Sector	Biotech

50%

Key Events Timeline

1999-01-01

FOUNDING

ETrials Worldwide founded in the USA to digitize clinical trial data capture for pharmaceutical companies.

2001-06-01

PRODUCT LAUNCH

ETrials launches its EDC platform commercially, targeting mid-sized pharmaceutical and CRO clients.

2004-01-01

FUNDING

ETrials secures $5M in what becomes its final funding round as pharma adoption remains slow.

2005-06-01

SHUTDOWN

ETrials Worldwide is acquired, ending its independent operation after failing to reach commercial scale.

Full Analysis

Analyst plan

Documented cause

ETrials Worldwide provided electronic data capture (EDC) software for clinical trials but faced an early-stage market where pharma adoption was slow. Post dot-com bust funding dried up and the company was acqui...

red rather than achieving standalone scale in a still-maturing regulatory tech space.

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€9M

Peak valuation

HypeCycle · MoatType · ResearchTags

ETrials Worldwide raised €5M before entered the electronic clinical trials market before pharma companies were operationally and culturally ready to adopt edc software at scale. ended it. See the documented cause, verified lesson and all failure signals.

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Key Events Timeline

Documented cause

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