Meet Biorce: The Health Tech Startup Transforming Clinical Trials and Winner of the 4YFN26 Awards

Winning the 4YFN Awards is a milestone for startups pushing the boundaries of innovation. This year, Biorce took home the top prize in the Health Tech category, standing out for its vision of transforming how clinical trials are designed and executed. 

We spoke with Pedro Coelho, Founder & CEO of Biorce to learn more about their mission, the challenges they’re tackling in healthcare, and what comes next after their 4YFN26 win. 

1. For those discovering Biorce for the first time, what problem are you solving in healthcare — and what makes your approach different?

There's a statistic that still stops me in my tracks: it takes an average of 10 to 15 years and over a billion dollars to bring a single drug to market. And a huge chunk of that time isn't science — it's paperwork, inefficiency, and protocol amendments that could have been avoided with better information upfront. 

The complexity runs deep. Designing studies, recruiting participants, ensuring regulatory compliance — each of these is a challenge on its own. And when a protocol needs amending, whether due to safety concerns, evolving science, or regulatory feedback, everything slows down. Every modification may require re-approval, compounding costs and adding months, sometimes years, to the timeline. 

That's the problem we're solving. The data to design better clinical trials already exists — built on a foundation of 1 million clinical trials and over 25 years of research. But no human brain, and no existing tool, can synthesize it fast enough to be useful at the moment of design. So, treatments are delayed. Patients wait. And sometimes they don't get to wait long enough. 

Aika, our platform, changes that. It accelerates how pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, and CROs design and execute clinical research — cutting protocol development time by at least 50% and eliminating the costly amendments that derail timelines. Every recommendation is evidence-based; every decision is auditable, with complete regulatory transparency. We understand both AI and clinical trial development at a level nobody else has reached yet. That's what makes us different. 

2. Building a health tech startup often means navigating complex regulation, data challenges and long development cycles. What has been one of the biggest hurdles for Biorce so far — and what has your team learned from it? 

I'll be honest — the regulatory complexity people assume is our biggest challenge actually isn't. We went into this knowing that HIPAA, GDPR, the EU AI Act, SOC 2, ISO 27001 — these aren't obstacles; they're the foundation. In healthcare AI, you either build for compliance from day one, or you don't build at all. 

The real challenge has been people and speed. Finding the right talent, people who understand both science and technology deeply enough to push what we're building forward, is genuinely hard. And the demand for what we do is growing faster than anyone expected, so the pressure to scale without compromising quality is something we feel every single day. That's the tension we're navigating right now, and honestly, it keeps us sharp.

3. Congratulations on winning the 4YFN26 Awards. What has been the most exciting or memorable moment of your experience at 4YFN? 

Hearing the name “Biorce” announced as the winner was an incredible moment, we were absolutely thrilled. But just as meaningful were the smaller moments: the great conversations, the networking, and the opportunity to truly listen, engage, and connect with people. 

4. Looking ahead, what are the next milestones for Biorce? Are there any developments or projects the ecosystem should be watching?   

We are continuously advancing our product development, launching new features every month while maintaining a strong pipeline of innovations still to come. Our ambition is to build best-in-class solutions for our partners that truly streamline the clinical trial development lifecycle.  

At the same time, we are accelerating our expansion in the United States—opening a new office in Austin this week, hosting a conference in Boston in May, and relocating part of our C-level team to support our growth in the region.  

5. Collaboration plays a major role in advancing healthcare innovation. How important are partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers or research institutions in accelerating Biorce’s impact? 

These elements are not just important—they are at the very core of what we do and why we exist. Our clients, pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and CROs, remain closely involved in shaping our products and features, effectively acting as co-pilots in our development process. We listen carefully to their needs, while our scientific team maintains continuous collaboration with leading research institutions. 

We integrate a vast range of high-quality data, including peer-reviewed scientific literature across therapeutic areas, nearly all clinical trials published over the past 25 years, more than 260,000 clinical trial protocols (including amendments), and extensive regulatory information. Scientific rigor is not just a priority—it defines who we are and underpins everything we do.

6. Finally, looking four years ahead — what changes would you like to see in the way clinical trials and drug development are conducted? 

We are an impact-driven organization, driven by the belief that clinical trial development must become significantly faster and more cost-efficient. The real enemy is not only the disease itself, but also the time lost to inefficient processes that delay life-saving treatments from reaching the people who need them most. Every day we remove from clinical development is a day gained for someone waiting.

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