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22 n e w h a v e n B I Z | J a n u a r y 2 0 2 3 | n e w h a v e n b i z . c o m F O C U S : H e a l t h C a r e New Haven's Jumo Health helps increase diversity in clinical trials By Matthew Broderick L ast February, as the Biden administration reignited the Cancer Moonshot initiative to accelerate the fight against can- cer and reduce cancer deaths by 50 percent over the next 25 years, one of the goals was to address inequities in access to cancer screenings, diagnostics and treatment. In support of that effort, this past April the U.S. Food and Drug Ad- ministration (FDA) issued new dra guidance to help pharmaceutical companies enroll more participants from underrepresented populations into clinical trials. "Ensuring meaningful represen- tation of racial and ethnic [groups] in clinical trials … is fundamental to public health," said FDA Commission- er Dr. Robert Califf, in a department statement. "Achieving greater diver- sity will be a key focus of the FDA to facilitate the development of better treatments and better fight diseases that oen disproportionately impact diverse communities." at's a challenge that New Hav- en-based Jumo Health, a global health education company, has been helping to address. e company, which was founded in London in 2009, started with a series of comic books for chil- dren to help explain common medical conditions, like diabetes and asthma, and medical procedures, such as CT scans, MRIs and blood tests. By 2015, the company had attracted the attention — and investment — of venture capitalists, who brought in a new management team, including current President and CEO Kevin Aniskovich. "We largely took what the compa- ny was doing around education and health literacy [for kids] and applied it to a larger market," Aniskovich said. at included expanding its target audience to include adults and sharp- ening its focus to increasing racial and ethnic participation in clinical trials, a key growth sector of the healthcare industry. According to market projections from Precedent Research, the clinical trial market is expected to grow 5.7% annually from $51 billion in 2021 to more than $84 billion by 2030. e move paid off. Over the past six years, Jumo Health's revenue has been up over 400% and the company has in- creased its employee base to 70, nearly doubling its staff annually in each of the past two years. In 2022, the company made the Inc. Magazine 5,000 list, recognizing the fastest-growing companies in America. Jumo Health ranked 1,891 on the list. Educational support Aniskovich said his company works with 80 pharmaceutical companies, including the world's top 10 pharma- ceutical giants — the company's core customer base. Jumo's customized educational resources have expanded to address more than 200 medical conditions and are available in more than 90 languag- es in 75 countries. Aniskovich said his company is currently providing education to support clinical trials in more than 20 countries. Jumo Health also sells its books and educational materials to more than 150 hospitals across the United States. Aniskovich said diversity in clinical trials is important because variations in genetic coding can make treatments more or less toxic for one racial and ethnic group than another. He points to a drug that fights a type of cancer where 20% of diagnosed patients are Continued on page 24 Kevin Aniskovich is the president and CEO of New Haven-based Jumo Health. A t A G l a n c e Company: Jumo Health Industry: Health education Top Executive: Kevin Aniskovich, CEO & President HQ: New Haven Website: https://www.jumohealth. com/ Contact: 646-895-9319 These are three books produced by Jumo Health that help people of various ages better understand clinical trials. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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