UK-based data analytics startup company Qureight has secured $8.5m in a Series A funding round led by Hargreave Hale AIM VCT to accelerate drug development.

The funding round attracted a consortium of new investors, including XTX Ventures, Guinness Ventures and Michelle Tempest.

The financing will be channelled towards accelerating the company's AI product portfolio, with a particular focus on lung cancer.

Qureight specialises in digital infrastructure for medical data and leverages its AI platform to streamline the drug development process.

The platform enhances the efficiency of clinical trials and data analysis, addressing the need for improved treatment options for complex heart and lung diseases.

The AI-powered platform can gather medical data in real-time through partnerships with the National Health Service (NHS), organising it for analysis and creating virtual trial patients.

Such structured data is pivotal in advancing medical research and developing new treatments.

Existing investors include Playfair Meltwind Advisory, Ascension Life Fund, CMS Ventures, Cambridge Angels and Simon Thorpe.

In February 2022, Qureight secured £1.5m in funding.

The company currently holds research and development contracts with five NHS England trusts which provide anonymised patient data to refine Qureight's machine learning model.

In exchange, the NHS utilises the platform for research and commercial purposes.

Qureight partnered with AstraZeneca in July 2023 in a significant collaboration on a multi-year research initiative. AstraZeneca agreed to employ Qureight's platform and AI technology to research complex lung diseases.

In September, Vicore Pharma utilised Qureight's platform for the Phase IIa AIR trial with their drug C21 for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The trial's results suggested that patients in the early stages of IPF could experience improved lung function with C21 treatment.