Aetion

Based in New York City, Aetion is a healthcare technology company that develops a software-as-a-service platform to transform real-world data into actionable evidence regarding medical treatment safety, effectiveness, and overall value. The enterprise software provider has reached a valuation exceeding $1 billion and currently employs approximately 300 people across its global operations. Aetion has raised over $212 million in total venture capital, which includes a $110 million Series C funding round led by Warburg Pincus with participation from New Enterprise Associates and Breyer Capital. The company provides its analytics platform to biopharmaceutical manufacturers, health insurers, and regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and expanded its artificial intelligence capabilities by acquiring Replica Analytics in 2021. Aetion was founded in 2013 by Harvard Medical School epidemiologists Jeremy Rassen and Sebastian Schneeweiss.

# High-Level Overview

Aetion is a healthcare technology company that transforms real-world data into decision-grade evidence for the life sciences industry.[1] The company delivers real-world evidence (RWE) solutions to biopharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers, payers, and regulators, enabling them to understand what medical treatments work, for whom, and at what cost.[1][3] Aetion was acquired by Datavant and now operates as a Datavant company, combining complementary capabilities to help healthcare organizations leverage data across the entire product lifecycle—from trial design through commercialization and beyond.[1]

The company's core offering is the Aetion Evidence Platform (AEP), which applies advanced causal inference, rigorous epidemiologic methods, and purpose-built AI to convert complex healthcare data into transparent, reliable evidence on treatment safety, effectiveness, and value.[1][3] This platform serves a critical need: enabling healthcare stakeholders to make confident, data-driven decisions that improve patient outcomes while supporting regulatory submissions, market access strategies, and clinical development efforts.[1][4]

# Origin Story

Aetion was founded with a mission to power critical decisions in healthcare through data science-driven technology.[8] The company was led by Jeremy Rassen, ScD, who serves as CEO and co-founder.[1][3] The founding vision emerged from recognizing a fundamental gap in healthcare decision-making: while vast amounts of real-world data exist across electronic medical records, claims databases, and patient registries, this data was fragmented and difficult to transform into actionable, regulatory-grade evidence.[1]

The company built its reputation by combining scientific rigor with technological innovation, attracting backing from prominent investors including Flare Capital Partners, NEA, Warburg Pincus, and B Capital, as well as leading life sciences and payer organizations.[1] This investor composition reflects Aetion's positioning at the intersection of pharmaceutical development, healthcare economics, and regulatory science. The acquisition by Datavant in 2025 represented a pivotal moment, uniting Aetion's RWE expertise with Datavant's data connectivity capabilities to create a more comprehensive solution for healthcare organizations.[1]

# Core Differentiators

• Scientific Rigor & Regulatory Acceptance: Aetion's evidence is recognized and accepted by regulatory agencies, health technology assessment (HTA) bodies, and payers globally. The company's research has been published in top-tier journals including *JAMA*, *Nature*, *Circulation*, *The New England Journal of Medicine*, and *Science*.[5]

• Advanced Analytical Methods: The platform combines validated epidemiologic methods, causal inference techniques, and structured analytics to move beyond descriptive statistics to causal understanding of treatment effects.[1][4]

• Scalable Technology Infrastructure: Built on AWS infrastructure with AI/ML capabilities powered by Amazon Bedrock, AEP can process complex real-world data at scale, enabling hypothesis generation and analysis automation.[4] The platform recently launched Activate, a low-code application that simplifies data preparation workflows while maintaining scientific rigor and auditability.[3]

• End-to-End Service Model: Beyond software, Aetion provides scientific services spanning evidence strategy development, data acquisition and optimization, study design and execution, and strategic guidance for positioning results.[5]

• Speed Advantage: The platform delivers faster insights compared to traditional coding environments like SAS, reducing time-to-analysis without compromising quality.[2]

# Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Aetion operates at the convergence of several powerful healthcare trends. The life sciences industry faces mounting pressure to demonstrate real-world value and cost-effectiveness of treatments—a shift driven by payers, regulators, and healthcare systems demanding evidence beyond traditional randomized controlled trials.[1] Real-world evidence has become increasingly critical for regulatory submissions, market access negotiations, and pricing justification, particularly as healthcare systems seek to optimize treatment selection and resource allocation.

The company also benefits from the broader digitization of healthcare data and the growing sophistication of AI/ML applications in healthcare analytics. By positioning itself as the bridge between fragmented data sources and actionable insights, Aetion helps unlock the latent value in healthcare data that organizations already possess but cannot effectively leverage.[6] The integration with Datavant amplifies this positioning, as it creates a more complete ecosystem for data connectivity and evidence generation—addressing a key pain point where organizations struggle to bring together disparate data sources for comprehensive analysis.[1]

# Quick Take & Future Outlook

Aetion is well-positioned to capture significant value as real-world evidence becomes a non-negotiable requirement in healthcare decision-making. The company's combination of scientific credibility, technological sophistication, and regulatory acceptance creates a defensible competitive position. The Datavant acquisition signals confidence in this thesis while providing distribution and data connectivity advantages that could accelerate growth.

Looking ahead, Aetion's trajectory will likely be shaped by several factors: the continued evolution of regulatory frameworks around RWE acceptance, the increasing adoption of AI/ML in healthcare analytics, and the growing demand for evidence that addresses health equity and real-world treatment effectiveness across diverse populations. As healthcare organizations increasingly recognize that traditional trial data alone cannot answer critical questions about treatment value in practice, Aetion's role as a trusted translator of real-world data into decision-grade evidence will only become more central to the industry's infrastructure.