There is no lack of vision at CRN Associate Member Radicle Science: they have a manifesto...and a credo. The company was started with the aim to make clinical research more accessible and "democratic." Utilizing AI and virtual clinical trials, the company focuses on providing evidence-based wellness solutions efficiently. Our conversation with the founders delves into their motivations, the hurdles they've encountered, and the impact they hope to achieve in the dietary supplement sector.
Please explain the mission of Radicle Science and how it stands out in the crowded supplement industry.
Jeff: As a public benefit organization (B-corp), we are on a mission to enable proven, personalized wellness treatments trusted by consumers, recommended by healthcare providers and easily accessible for all. We believe the emerging intersection of clinical science, AI-powered technologies, and consumer engagement will be key to achieving our mission, and have pioneered the “Proof-as-a-Service'' category to transform clinical trial, the same way Ford Motors transformed manufacturing
Pelin: We are taking trials from a slow, costly, bespoke, manual, physical process studying small homogenous populations into a rapid, affordable, automated, virtual approach studying large diverse populations. In essence, we are productizing clinical proof generation into a standardized, scalable, tech-enabled offering for health and wellness products, resulting in unprecedented affordability, speed and scale.
Pelin: We’ve been honored and humbled by the recognition we’ve received for our transformative approach, including being named Fast Company’s “World Changing Idea,” Nutraingredients “Startup of the Year,” KPMG Top 10 U.S. “Tech Innovator,” and UCSF Digital Health Awards “Rising Star.”
What inspired the founding of Radicle Science, and how do you believe your approach is changing the way supplements are perceived and utilized?
Jeff: As a physician researcher, I was pained by the pharma-model of medicine. I wanted to find better, more affordable health treatments, which led me to create and lead a first-of-its-kind natural products research center at UCLA. However, I grew frustrated with how slow and expensive the trials were.
Pelin: My background is information engineering and data science. As a tech CEO turned philanthropist, I was funding first-of-its-kind natural medicine trials at renowned research institutions across the U.S. Given my data background, I came to the painful realization that the small scale and homogeneous populations of those studies was never going to achieve my mission of affordable, personalized medicine for all.
Jeff: We joined forces because we realized our deep mission alignment and highly complementary backgrounds had the makings to fix a broken healthcare system that mostly ignored natural medicines. We knew AI, virtualization along with the widespread use of smartphones and digital health devices had the power to fundamentally transform the future of data generation for health and wellness products.
“We’re on a mission to democratize access to clinical trials, so we can advance personalized medicine to be accessible and affordable for all,” explains Pelin Thorogood, Co-Founder and Chairwoman of Radicle Science. “Radicle Science exists to transform clinical trials for non-pharmaceuticals and ultimately, how we, as consumers, experience their effectiveness for our unique bodies and conditions,” adds Dr. Jeff Chen, Co-Founder and CEO of Radicle Science.
What sets you apart as leaders? What are your superpowers, if you will?
Pelin: One of our superpowers is lateral thinking, or our ability to approach difficult problems with an open mind and creative thinking. We both enjoy challenging conventions and assumptions. We love digging into root causes and can make intuitive leaps between disparate ideas. And we continually fuel each other’s creativity, regularly coming up with breakthrough ideas during long hikes and similar flow states.
Pelin: Another superpower is our abundance mindset; we believe in the power of “and” vs. going with the traditional and less optimal 'either/or' paradigm, where for one point of view or choice to win another has to lose.
Jeff: Finally we believe innovation comes from everyone. As such, we promote a culture of exploration and experimentation in Radicle, where everyone feels safe to express themselves and their ideas. Some of our very best ideas have come from our open forums and “Wouldn’t it be Radicle if…” brainstorming sessions.
How do you define success for the company?
Jeff: As a public benefit organization (B-corp), we measure our success by the number of products we study for their effectiveness and the number of consumers who participate in our studies. Since launching in 2021, we’ve studied nearly 50,000 highly diverse Americans - 3x more than all participants in NIH-funded phase 3 trials during that same time.
Pelin: This large and rapidly growing number of citizen scientists who are now more aware of the scientific approach for evaluating product effectiveness in general, and more literate when it comes to how different health products may affect them differently is one of our most significant achievements.
How do you inspire your teams to take that journey with you?
Jeff: From our first job postings, we took inspiration from legendary Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton: ”The work will be hard, and safety is not guaranteed, but if we succeed, we will permanently alter the course of medicine for all future generations.”
When Dr. Emily Pauli saw this posting, she exclaimed, “I think I’ve found my people!” She left a prestigious oncology research directorship and is now Radicle Science’s Chief Research Officer. Many in our founding team left retirement-track positions and took pay cuts in order to help revolutionize healthcare, naturally.
We’re not here just to build a great business—we're here to change the world for the better. And we want to attract people who are 100% in, whether they are employees, customers, citizen scientists or investors. We're transparent about who we are to ensure that everybody who joins our cause knows what they are committing to. And while it may not be an easy mission, it's certainly a very worthwhile one.
Pelin: What we see in our team is passion driven by the greater good, unrelenting resourcefulness, and a deep curiosity about innovation. They don’t just work on the tasks they are given, rather they want to understand the big problems we are focused on and be part of the solution. They truly represent the innovation workforce of the future.
At the end of the day, it's the whole systems-approach that we need. Most things don’t exist in a bubble, everything is interconnected. Our employees have a sense of this interconnectedness to business and life, so their perspectives are bigger and broader, a rare quality that makes them more impactful. We’ve created a unique culture not found elsewhere.
How does Radicle Science employ scientific research to evaluate the effectiveness of dietary supplements, and what methodologies do you consider most critical?
Jeff: All of our clinical trials are conducted with the highest scientific rigor, using gold standard, randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled IRB-approved protocols. We’ve lowered the cost of clinical trials by more than 10x and increased their speed by 5x with our Proof-as-a-Service platform, delivering double-blinded, randomized placebo-controlled trials for under 100K and under 6 months. Better yet, our crowdsourced, direct-to-consumer approach enables studies that are 10x larger than average traditional trials, with a minimum of 500 participants per study. This is critical to ensuring the studies are powered for statistical significance. This large sample size also allows us to not only test the primary hypothesis but also explore secondary and tertiary outcomes for hidden correlations to see how demographic, behavioral, prescription medications, and pre-existing conditions may play a role in the efficacy or side effects.
Pelin: In line with our mission, Radicle brings much needed diversity, equity and inclusion into medical research. The unprecedented scale and reach of our 100% virtual studies intentionally includes those traditionally underrepresented in clinical trials. We’ve achieved gender parity, with about 54% of our study participants identifying as female. Minorities comprise 20-30% of Radicle’s study participants - a significant contrast to 3.95% minority inclusion in all trials in the US (Source: Mayo Clinic). Reflecting the US Census, 20% of their participants live in rural areas who would otherwise have limited access to trials.
How does Radicle Science ensure the accuracy and reliability of its research findings, and what steps do you take to maintain transparency with the public?
Jeff: All of our study protocols are standardized and pre-approved by the IRB (Institutional Review Board) and registered with ClinicalTrials.gov. While many traditional clinical trials are “custom built,” our standardized, proven protocols ensure there are no design biases or room for p-hacking.
Pelin: All volunteers in our clinical trials are unblinded at the end of the study and provided a personalized health report. They can see exactly what ingredients (or placebo) they received and if there were any clinically meaningful changes in their health outcomes.
What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you foresee in the supplement industry, and how is Radicle Science positioning itself to address these?
Jeff: The biggest challenge is credibility amongst consumers and healthcare providers. As Sean Moloughney, Editor of Nutraceuticals World, posited, “outside the dietary supplement industry, there’s a lot of skepticism about the efficacy of products.” Increasingly skeptical consumers are looking to avoid healthwashing.
We believe that by providing easy, affordable access to gold-standard clinical trials, we can usher in a new chapter for our industry where:
- Manufacturers and brands finally have the opportunity to approach product innovation and customer targeting in completely different ways
- Retailers and etailers have the confidence that the products they are selling are backed by clinical evidence Consumers confidently buy clinically proven products.
- Healthcare providers finally have the clinical data to trust and recommend supplements.
What are you most excited about and looking ahead, how does Radicle Science plan to expand its impact within the supplement industry and beyond, potentially into other areas of health and wellness?
Pelin: The January 2024 McKinsey report on the Future of Wellness states how efficacy and scientific credibility have emerged as the two most important factors to consumers when selecting wellness products. This same report also identifies clinically proven products and AI-driven personalization as key trends shaping the wellness industry. All of this is very exciting as they speak directly to the relevance of our Radicle mission and core competencies.
Our Proof-as-a-Service approach not only delivers better, faster, more affordable access to clinical evidence for the products we study, but the resulting large and heterogeneous datasets open a whole new world of opportunities to assess product effectiveness for different populations, unearth hidden correlations and explore variances in consumer perceptions. We believe it’s this kind of data-driven decision-making that will power breakthroughs in R&D, personalized marketing and drive us towards precision medicine.
We plan to expand our Radicle approach to deliver proof—and increased consumer and healthcare provider trust—into the entire wellness industry, including supplements, functional foods and beverages, skincare, wearables, digital wellness and longevity.