Founded by Rich Morrison and Jud Gardner, Y-Combinator backed Comprehend Systems is launching the first iteration of its comprehensible data analysis platform today, Comprehend Clinical. Comprehend Clinical’s browser friendly interface allows its clients to analyze the results of clinical drug trials across multiple data sources, combining those stored in diverse data structures and databases.
In the same space as Sas Institute and Pitco, Comprehend Clinical attempts to empower people bringing drugs to market to “ask the questions they need to ask.” When you’re dealing with lengthly drug studies you need to know whether the drug is safe and effective, and whether people are dying as a soon as possible. “A clinical study lasts four years, and who uses software that’s seven years old? By default you’re going to have to interface a lot of stuff,” says founder Rich Morrison.
Comprehend’s customizable dashboards provide easily downloadable data visualizations and reports. The service also allows you to view data analysis in realtime and perform drill down data queries. Comprehend plans on monetizing through direct enterprise sales, charging companies per Comprehend user.
Morrison and Gardner decided to go into pharma because of their familiarity with the space (Rich was at Integrated Clinical Systems and Jud was a pharmaceutical consultant before they built Comprehend). The industry also seemed ideal for what they were attempting to accomplish because of its overreliance on multiple data sets and different storage formats. The founders plan on expanding to other verticals like inventory management and utility automation sometime in the near future.