Data rooms for biotech startups.
A biotech data room is built around the science and the regulatory path: preclinical study reports, IND filings and FDA meeting minutes, clinical protocols and data, manufacturing (CMC) records, patents and the licence agreements with universities or partners. Investors and pharma partners read it with their own scientists, so completeness and version control matter most.
Biotech room
- 01 Corporate
- 02 Science overview
- 03 Preclinical
- 04 Regulatory
- 05 Clinical
- 06 CMC
- 07 IP
How it works for a startup.
Biotech investors and pharma partners bring scientific advisers, regulatory consultants and patent counsel into diligence. They read raw and summarised study data, check that studies supporting an IND followed Good Laboratory Practice where required, compare the clinical plan with FDA feedback and test whether the patents cover the product and last long enough.
Many biotech startups license their core asset from a university or another company. The licence terms, including field, territory, milestones, royalties, sublicensing rights and diligence obligations, can decide the value of the company. If federal grants funded the original research, the Bayh-Dole Act gives the government certain rights, and investors will ask about them.
Rooms for licensing and partnering often stay open for months, with several companies reviewing in parallel. Staged access, view-only scientific data and detailed activity logs show which partners are serious and protect unpublished data.
Top 10 data rooms for this job.
Our five measures, re-weighted for biotech. Places 11 to 17 are listed below the cards.
- Setup speed 20%
- Investor experience 16%
- Access control 28%
- Diligence tools 23%
- Startup pricing 13%
- 1 9.0/10First-rate
- $149 monthly
- 14-day free trial
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- NDA e-signing
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- SOC 2 (hosting)
- 2 8.2/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Free trial offered
- 9/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- 3 8.2/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Demo, no trial
- 10/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- 4 8.2/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Free trial offered
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- 5 8.1/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Free trial offered
- 7/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- 6 7.9/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Demo, no trial
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- GDPR
- 7 7.9/10Strong pick
- Quote only
- Demo, no trial
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- 8 7.8/10Strong pick
- $250 monthly
- Free trial offered
- 8/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- NDA e-signing
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- SOC 2
- 9 7.7/10Good option
- $299 monthly
- Free trial offered
- 7/12 feature checks
- Investor Q&A
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- 10 7.6/10Good option
- $55 monthly
- Free trial offered
- 9/12 feature checks
- NDA e-signing
- Dynamic watermarks
- View-only and download control
- Viewer activity log
- SOC 2
- ISO 27001
- HIPAA
Show places 11 to 17
- SmartRoom 7.6
- DealRoom 7.6
- ShareVault 7.4
- Onehub 6.9
- Venue by DFIN 6.7
- Digify 6.7
- DocSend 6.2
Folder index.
A starting structure for this room. Rename folders to fit your company and keep the numbers.
Charter, cap table, financing documents, board consents.
Mechanism, target biology, publications, scientific advisory board.
Pharmacology, toxicology and GLP study reports, study audit records.
Pre-IND and Type B meeting packages and minutes, IND submissions, FDA correspondence, designations.
Protocols, investigator brochure, IRB approvals, data summaries, safety reports.
Manufacturing process, CDMO agreements, batch records, stability data.
Patent families, file histories, FTO summaries, expiry dates.
University and partner licences, milestone and royalty schedules, sublicence terms.
NIH and other federal awards, Bayh-Dole records, iEdison reports.
CRO, CDMO, consulting and material transfer agreements.
Budget, burn, runway to each data readout.
Need every file by stage? Use the startup data room checklist.
Must-have features.
| Provider | View-only and download control | Dynamic watermarks | Investor Q&A | Viewer activity log | Bulk folder upload |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellty | |||||
| iDeals | |||||
| Datasite | |||||
| Ansarada | |||||
| Firmex | |||||
| Drooms | |||||
| Intralinks | |||||
| SecureDocs | |||||
| CapLinked | |||||
| Citrix ShareFile |
- View-only and download control
- Set each file to view only, print or download, and change it later without resending anything.
- Dynamic watermarks
- Stamps the viewer email and the time across every page, so a forwarded screenshot points back to its source.
- Investor Q&A
- Funds and buyers ask questions against a file; you assign, answer and publish replies, and the thread stays on record.
- Viewer activity log
- Shows which investor opened which file, for how long and when, and exports the record.
- Bulk folder upload
- Drag a whole folder tree in at once and keep its numbering.
Set up the room in 6 steps.
- 1
Organise by program
If you have more than one asset, give each program its own preclinical, regulatory and clinical folders.
- 2
File FDA records completely
Keep every meeting package, minutes and letter. Reviewers compare your plan with what the FDA said.
- 3
Summarise the licences
One page per licence with field, milestones, royalties, sublicensing and termination rights.
- 4
Map patents to the product
Show which patent families cover the compound, its use and its manufacture, with expiry dates.
- 5
Protect unpublished data
Share raw data view-only with watermarks and download blocking, and open it to partners in stages.
- 6
Run scientific Q&A
Route partner scientists' questions through Q&A so your team answers once and the record stays complete.
Common mistakes.
- FDA meeting minutes missing or filed as drafts.
- A university licence whose field does not cover a new indication.
- CMC gaps that delay the next clinical stage.
- Unpublished data shared with downloads enabled to every partner.