Virtual Clinical Trials: Companies, Startups & Research

Pfizer, IQVIA, Novartis, AstraZeneca and Oracle are among the companies active in virtual clinical trials. Their roles include sponsor-led hybrid studies, clinical-research services and digital trial operations. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Parexel International and LabCorp also appear among organizations associated with trial approaches. Their involvement varies, so trial fit and service scope should be checked directly.

Citruslabs, Koneksa Health and Love Wellness are identified as startups working in this area. Citruslabs conducts remote consumer-health studies; Koneksa develops sensor-derived digital measures for clinical research; and Love Wellness sponsors virtual supplement trials using participant-reported outcomes. These examples span different business models, so they should not be treated as interchangeable trial vendors.

Stanford University, the University of California and Harvard University are prominent research organizations in this field. Mayo Clinic also has work on remote assessments and multiregional decentralized trial programs. Recent studies include work by Novo Nordisk and Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen on a fully decentralized type 2 diabetes study, and by Brown University on self-collected dried blood spots.

Recorded grants total $255.9 million across 119 grants since 2020. The available funding-round data also records $164.3 billion across 50 rounds, but that broad total is not clearly attributable to virtual clinical trials specifically. Treat the grant figure as the more directly useful funding indicator, while noting that the records do not establish how much went to particular trial programs.

Pharmaco Investments Inc. holds the most listed patents, with 3; Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Tempus AI have 2 each. The records show 31 patents in the 24-month window and patent activity growth of -27.8%. This indicates a decline in the recorded activity measure, not necessarily a decline in all innovation or patenting across the broader clinical-trial sector.

Recent developments include a site-less phenylbutyrate feasibility trial for SLC6A1-related disorders in October 2026, using remote participation alongside EEG monitoring and laboratory testing. A type 2 diabetes study from Novo Nordisk and Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen examined protocol adherence, participant satisfaction and connected-device data, with a publication in August 2026. Other work explores home spirometry and self-collected dried blood spots.

The main approaches are remote trial operations, hybrid participation, telehealth assessments, wearable monitoring and digital outcome capture. Hybrid participation combines remote tasks with selected in-person visits; fully remote operations move more activities outside research sites. Telehealth supports remote assessments, while wearables and digital tools gather measures between visits. The right mix depends on the study’s assessments, safety needs and data requirements.

The United States leads recorded activity, with 55,064 documents and a 71.4% share. The United Kingdom follows with 20,942 documents, then Germany with 14,048. These country figures can overlap because a document may be associated with organizations in multiple countries, so they indicate recorded activity rather than exclusive shares of global work.

Applications include medical devices, mental health, chronic disease, rare diseases and oncology. Medical devices have 3,234 associated documents, mental health 3,047, and chronic disease 2,985. Recent examples include remote monitoring research in interstitial lung disease and a site-less feasibility trial for SLC6A1-related disorders. The feasibility of remote methods differs by condition and by the measurements a study requires.