Athelas Home: CRO & Pharma Market Expansion Plan

Evolution of Athelas and the Emerging CRO Opportunity

Athelas has steadily advanced its white blood cell (WBC) monitoring technology from clinical to home settings. The original Athelas One WBC device received FDA clearance in 2018 for use in point-of-care environments, followed by FDA clearance in 2022 for Athelas Home, enabling convenient, at-home WBC and ANC testing. The primary use case to date has been for patients prescribed Clozaril (clozapine), which requires frequent WBC and ANC monitoring.

From the beginning, Athelas recognized the potential to expand beyond psychiatry and partner with pharmaceutical manufacturers, particularly those in oncology, where regular hematology monitoring is also critical. While early efforts to bundle the device with specific drug programs did not materialize, they established a foundation for deeper engagement with the biopharma ecosystem.

Our recent collaboration with CSL Behring reaffirmed this potential. The study highlighted how Athelas’ mobility, connectivity, and ease of use align with the growing shift toward decentralized clinical trials. These advantages help accelerate enrollment, reduce patient dropout, and streamline data collection.

Through this experience, we identified a major opportunity with Clinical Research Organizations (CROs)—the operational leaders behind most outsourced clinical trials. With over 75% of outsourced clinical trials managed by CROs, this sector has emerged as a natural next growth avenue for Athelas. CROs are focused on driving trial efficiency, lowering costs, and improving participant engagement—all areas where Athelas can deliver clear value.

With the global trial landscape rapidly moving toward remote and decentralized models, Athelas is uniquely positioned to support CROs and their sponsors in running faster, more efficient, and patient-centric studies.

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1. The Ask

Objective:
Secure executive support and funding to launch a dedicated Go-to-Market (GTM) motion for Athelas Home focused on pharmaceutical clinical trials via Contract Research Organizations (CROs).

Key Requests:

GTM Activation:
- New landing page on Athelas website dedicated to “Athelas Home for Clinical Trials.”
- Coordinated social media campaign (LinkedIn, X, etc.) highlighting Athelas’ unique home-based blood diagnostics advantage for trials.
- Targeted marketing outreach to CRO and Pharma audiences (IQVIA, Parexel, Syneos, Labcorp Drug Development, etc.).
Sales Enablement:
- Development of CRO-specific sales collateral (1-pager, pitch deck, case study on CSL Behring Study #324).
- Dedicated business development lead for the CRO vertical. For phase 1, we can use (with approval) ENT SDR resources to support pipeline generation given the narrow focus. This initiative likely only needs a few hour commitment on a weekly basis and will not interfere with ENT SDRs core focus.
Operational Investment:
- Modest budget allocation for landing page design, marketing, and business development resources.
  - Organic Growth Commitment = XXX hours between content marketing, website creation, etc.
  - Growth Marketing Commitment = $XXX for targeted campaigns to drive inbound traffic / awareness. Looking to reinvest monthly “program / support” fees from CSL Behring ($8,750 monthly starting in Nov.)
- Optional pilot participation in 2–3 upcoming studies as early reference customers.

Recommendation:
Include internal alignment with:

Product team (API readiness, logistics workflow for trial shipment models)
Marketing (brand positioning)
Legal/Compliance (global regulatory coverage)

2. Business Opportunity

Market Overview:
The global clinical trials market exceeds $50B, with CROs managing ~75% of outsourced trials.
A large portion of these trials require longitudinal blood monitoring for parameters like:

White Blood Cell (WBC) count
Neutrophils
Platelets
Hemoglobin

The move toward decentralized trials (DCTs) and remote patient monitoring (RPM) is rapidly expanding — CROs increasingly seek validated home-based diagnostic devices that reduce patient site visits.

Athelas Positioning:
Athelas Home provides FDA-cleared, capillary-based blood testing with automated data transmission — ideal for:

Longitudinal monitoring in global trial arms
Reducing clinic burden and dropout rates
Enhancing real-time safety tracking and compliance

Revenue Potential:

Benchmark: CSL Behring Study #324 = $1M+ for one trial
CROs run 3,000+ trials annually that require blood monitoring
Even a 1% penetration (30 studies/year) yields $30M+ potential ARR opportunity
Average study deal size: $500K–$1.5M
International opportunity: Trials across EU, Japan, and APAC increasingly require decentralized collection models — enabling potential partnerships with Covance, ICON, PPD, and CMIC (Japan)

Cross-Selling Opportunities:

International Market Entry Point: Given the International market commitment to recent opportunities in Japan and the UAE, this GTM motion can expand on International efforts given the prevalence of clinical studies outside of the U.S.
Multi-Product Flywheel: Our pilot work with Roche and the deployment for CSL Behring has shown the potential of cross-selling, particularly with patient engagement solutions.

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Marketing Exposure:

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The Athelas Home is still “one of one”. Our work in this space can be another highlight of “meeting the patients / providers where they are” through our support of de-centralized clinical trials. Many companies tout their impact, Athelas Home still remains an anchoring proof point that should be visible and celebrated with much more frequency. More marketing post opportunities and more visibility as a company.

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3. Customer Target

Type

Example Partners

Role

CROs (P0)

IQVIA, Parexel, ICON, Labcorp, PPD

Primary customers; run clinical trials

Pharma Sponsors (P1)

CSL Behring, Roche, Pfizer, Amgen

Secondary stakeholders / funders

Regulatory & Logistics (P2)

Global shipping and calibration partners

Device distribution for trial participants

Target Customer Base:

Tier 1 CROs managing large-scale multi-country trials
Mid-size CROs specializing in rare diseases and gene therapies
Pharma sponsors exploring decentralized monitoring pilots

4. Phases & Timelines

Goal:
Request seed funding for Phase 1: Business Development & GTM Activation, with measurable pipeline creation as the primary success metric.

Phase

Timeline

Objectives

Deliverables

Success Metrics

Phase 1 – Business Development Launch

Q4 ‘25 - Q1 ‘26

Establish market presence & generate early pipeline

Website launch, outreach campaign, CRO lead list, case study (CSL Behring)

$3M-5M in qualified CRO pipeline within 6 months

Phase 2 – Executed Engagements & Proof of Concept

Q3–Q4 2026