TrialScreen Wins Whale Tank at DIA 2026 Global Annual Meeting

TrialScreen, a global company focusing on clinical trial awareness and patient lead generation for clinical research, has won the ClinTech Whale Tank competition at the DIA 2026 Global Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The win was announced on Wednesday, June 18, following a live pitch in the Innovation Theater by Elisa Cascade, TrialScreen’s Chief Growth Officer. Participating companies were judged on four criteria: Innovation and Novelty, Evidence and Market Validation, Patient and Clinical Impact, and Solution Feasibility and Adoption.

Whale Tank is a live pitch competition held as part of DIA ASCENT, a new initiative at DIA's Global Annual Meeting designed to connect early-stage life sciences innovators with regulators, industry leaders, investors, and potential customers. Finalists pitch directly to the decision-makers who shape the industry, receiving real-time feedback on their solutions.

Clinical trial recruitment has historically underserved both patients and research sites. Patients searching for studies encounter technical language on public registry websites, or digital advertisements that lead to a study page requiring contact details before any information is provided. Those who do not qualify are left without a pathway to alternatives.

Sites face a parallel challenge. Outreach frequently reaches individuals with limited awareness of the study, resulting in poor conversion, high screen failure, and eroding trust on both sides.

“We as an industry took an oath: do no harm. Yet we were failing the patients and the sites that needed us most.” said Elisa Cascade, Chief Growth Officer, TrialScreen.

TrialScreen contains over 100,000 global clinical trials, industry and academic, across 200 countries. Patients can search for a study by condition and geography, access full study information, check their fit, and choose whether to share their contact details with a site. Interested patients are routed automatically and securely to the site’s preferred system via email or API — no external login required. Patients who do not qualify for one study are immediately connected to alternatives in the same moment they are searching.

TrialScreen's approach addresses the core limitations of existing solutions:

• Understandable, plain language: technical registry content is replaced with accessible study information, available in all languages
• Complete global index: every trial, academic and industry, is included, not just paid listings
  
• No upfront registration: patients access full study information before deciding whether to share contact details
  
• Automated routing: information on interested patients is sent directly to the site's email or preferred system, no portal login required
  
• Verified site contacts: ongoing verification of the 80% of registry listings that are incorrect or missing ensures leads actually reach the site, every time

“That patient is searching for a trial. They’re searching for hope. TrialScreen meets them in the minute that they are searching.” Cascade added.

Built Over Years, Not Weeks

TrialScreen's advantage was not designed in a single product cycle. The plain-language AI was fine-tuned over years of scientific development. Eighty percent of site contact details in public registries are missing or incorrect; TrialScreen has been verifying and correcting these on an ongoing basis at a scale competitors have not yet begun to match. The result is a product that took years to build and cannot be shortcut.

From the Co-Founder

"Winning the Whale Tank validates that our mission and approach resonate with the industry leaders who shape the future of clinical research," said Hugo Stephenson, Co-Founder and Executive Chair of TrialScreen. "Ultimately, it is the patients searching for clinical trials who will benefit most, and this recognition brings us one step closer to bridging that gap.”

About TrialScreen

TrialScreen was built to bridge the gap between clinical research and the people who can benefit from it. We believe finding and participating in clinical trials should be straightforward, transparent, and accessible. By combining plain-language trial summaries of all global clinical trials with persona-driven content, imagery, and outreach, TrialScreen reduces time to enrollment and engages a broad, representative patient population. The result is a more efficient recruitment pathway, designed to work alongside existing site workflows to connect the right participants to the right trials at scale.

About the LIFT Series Whale Tank Pitch Competition

The Whale Tank Pitch Competition is presented as part of the LIFT Series, DIA's first-of-its-kind emerging innovation and startup initiative at the DIA 2026 Global Annual Meeting. The competition provides selected biotech and clintech startups with the opportunity to present their innovations to a panel of expert judges drawn from across the life sciences, investment, and regulatory communities.

Powered by Innovation Network, Whale Tank is a founder-first pitch experience designed to help promising innovations reach the market faster. Beyond one-way pitching, the format creates space for candid roundtable discussions and meaningful connections with the stakeholders who can help move solutions forward.

Media Contact
Emma Burrows
Head of Scientific Engagement, TrialScreen
emma.burrows@trialscreen.com