THREAD Accelerates Expansion to Advance Global Decentralized Clinical Trials

DURHAM, NC, UNITED STATES - Aug 13, 2020 - THREAD, an innovative technology and service provider that enables decentralized clinical research, announced today that it’s accelerating the company’s expansion after receiving an additional capital commitment of up to $50 million from strategic health care investors, Water Street Healthcare Partners and JLL Partners.  The company’s latest capital infusion builds on a year of significant growth and investments in its platform and services to advance decentralized research approaches for large-scale, Phase Ib - IV global clinical trials.

Water Street and JLL Partners initially invested in and acquired THREAD in 2019: https://www.threadresearch.com/jll-partners-and-water-street-acquire-thread.  Over the past year, THREAD has leveraged the health care firms’ combined pharmaceutical expertise, network of industry resources and capital to:

• expand its global footprint to more than 40 countries;
• rapidly develop and implement COVID-19 clinical trial risk mitigation tools to advance critical research during the pandemic;
• add new features to its proprietary, configurable decentralized research platform;
• enhance its capabilities and provide 24x7 global, multilingual customer support;
• and ultimately support customers with virtual visits, hybrid decentralized studies and fully decentralized studies customized to their individual study needs in key therapeutic areas.

THREAD’s decentralized approach increases participant engagement by enabling pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations to remotely capture data from participants and sites during, in between and in lieu of in-clinic visits.  To date, THREAD has supported more than 100 decentralized studies.  The company will continue to invest in expanding and enhancing its innovative platform and supporting services as a growing list of the world’s leading pharmaceutical and life science organizations engage the company as their partner for their clinical research studies. 

“THREAD leads the industry with its knowledge and experience in decentralized trials. This newest investment marks the next phase in our long-term strategic plan,” said Mark A. Goldberg, M.D., executive chairman, THREAD.  “Working together with Water Street and JLL Partners, we are deeply committed to keeping THREAD at the forefront of providing clients with innovative, high-quality decentralized solutions they can count on to safely bring new therapies to market faster.”

John Reites, president, THREAD, added, “Every decision, initiative and action we make is focused on expanding THREAD’s leadership position to further benefit our customers and support them with

decentralizing their global clinical trials.  Now more than ever, our biopharma and CRO customers need solutions that enable them to continue research during the pandemic and enhance their designs for future studies.  We are fully focused on ensuring THREAD is their long-standing partner in developing and implementing fit-for-purpose decentralized study solutions for patients, sites, home health and study teams.”

About JLL Partners

JLL Partners is a middle-market private equity firm with over three decades of experience transforming businesses in the health care, specialty industrials, and business services sectors. The firm is dedicated to partnering with companies that it can help build into market leaders through a combination of strategic mergers and acquisitions, organic growth initiatives, and operational enhancements. The JLL Partners team is comprised of seasoned investment professionals and operating partners who are focused on driving long-term value creation across its portfolio. Since its founding in 1988, JLL Partners has committed approximately $5.6 billion of equity capital across eight private equity funds, with over 50 platform investments and more than 190 add-on acquisitions. For more information, please visit www.jllpartners.com.

About Water Street

Water Street is a strategic investor focused exclusively on healthcare. The firm has a strong record of building market-leading companies across key growth sectors in healthcare. It has worked with some of the world’s leading healthcare companies on its investments including Humana, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic and Walgreen Co. Water Street’s team is comprised of industry executives and investment professionals with decades of experience investing in and operating global healthcare businesses. The firm is headquartered in Chicago. For more information, visit www.waterstreet.com.

About THREAD

THREAD is a leading provider of a proprietary, decentralized research platform and suite of supporting services used by biopharma, CROs and life science organizations to remotely capture data from participants and sites during, in-between and in lieu of in-clinic visits. THREAD's platform and supporting services are helping customers to reduce study launch timelines, reduce study budgets with Virtual Visits and bring studies from the clinic to patients' homes. THREAD provides key platform features such as eConsent, eCOA/ePRO, sensors, reminders and telehealth Virtual Visits to support remote data capture, hybrid virtual studies and fully decentralized studies in key therapeutic areas. Visit www.THREADresearch.com to learn more.