Verily Forms Strategic Alliances with Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi to Transform Clinical Research
Leading biopharmaceutical organizations join Project Baseline
initiative to engage more patients and clinicians in research and speed
evidence generation
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Verily, an Alphabet company, today announced strategic alliances with
Novartis (NYSE: NVS), Otsuka (NYSE: OTSKY), Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and
Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN, NASDAQ: SNY) to develop digitally innovative,
patient-centered clinical research programs using Project Baseline’s
evidence generation platform and tools. The Baseline Platform is
designed to engage more patients and clinicians in research, increase
the speed and ease of conducting studies and collect more comprehensive,
higher quality data, including outside the four walls of a clinic.
Across the United States, the number of people participating in clinical
research — including clinical trials and observational studies — is
less than 10% of the population.1 In addition to low
participation, challenges in research include data fragmentation,
inefficient operations and limited value for patients.
Alongside academic research institutions, patient-advocacy groups and
health systems, Verily and its industry partners aim to implement a more
patient-centric, technology-enabled approach to research, and increase
the number and diversity of clinical research participants. They will
also explore novel approaches to generating real-world evidence using
the Baseline Platform to collect, organize and activate health
information from electronic health records, sensors and other digital
sources. Over the coming years, Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi each
plan to launch clinical studies leveraging the platform across diverse
therapeutic areas, such as cardiovascular disease, oncology, mental
health, dermatology and diabetes.
“Evidence generation through research is the backbone of improving
health outcomes. We need to be inclusive and encourage diversity in
research to truly understand health and disease, and to provide
meaningful insights about new medicines, medical devices and digital
health solutions,” said Jessica Mega, M.D., chief medical and scientific
officer, Verily. “Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and Sanofi have been early
adopters of advanced technology and digital tools to improve clinical
research operations, and together we’re taking another step towards
making research accessible and generating evidence to inform better
treatments and care.”
The evolution of Project Baseline
Verily launched Project Baseline in 2017 with the Project Baseline
Health Study to develop the technology and tools to help researchers
create a more comprehensive, precise map of human health. The company’s
interdisciplinary team of engineers, clinicians, scientists and partners
have since developed and continue to expand:
-
User-friendly devices, dashboards and analytical tools that create an
engaging experience for patients and provide research decision support
to study coordinators and researchers; -
An interoperable platform that provides access to timely, normalized
data in order to streamline enrollment and management of studies; and -
A robust infrastructure that enables collection of dynamic data, like
electronic health records, biometric or self-reported information,
which may provide significantly more context about the value of an
intervention.
Verily’s Project Baseline has also built a connected ecosystem with the
aim of linking patients and advocacy groups with clinicians and health
systems, integrating clinical research with clinical practice and making
the process engaging. It started with a community of researchers, study
sponsors and study volunteers, including Duke University School of
Medicine, Stanford Medicine, Google and the American Heart Association
(AHA) who helped test tools and technologies in the landmark Project
Baseline Health Study. Next, Verily launched the Project Baseline Advisory
Board of luminaries spanning healthcare, technology, medicine and
patient advocacy. Then, in early 2019, Verily and the AHA announced Research
Goes Red, which will leverage the Baseline Platform to engage more
women in research, and an ongoing collaboration to connect patient
communities with relevant research opportunities. Finally, this month
Verily launched the Baseline
Health System Consortium with vanguard health systems in the United
States to explore the use of new tools and technology to improve
research broadly and help bridge the gap between clinical research and
clinical care.
“If we are truly to achieve the realization of patient-centered care, we
must advance innovative research methodologies that focus on the patient
and their needs, values and lifestyles,” said Reed Tuckson, M.D.,
chairman, Project Baseline Advisory Board. “Project Baseline, in
collaboration with these innovative companies, is well positioned to
achieve this vision and have a transformative impact on research.”
Verily’s initial strategic alliances with Novartis, Otsuka, Pfizer and
Sanofi strengthen the innovative research ecosystem that will continue
to expand and could help foster greater scientific discovery through the
creation of next-generation research and development programs.
Supporting Quotes
“At Novartis we are advancing treatments that stand to change the course
of disease, or even offer cures, but our ability to bring new medicines
to patients quickly is often hampered by inefficient or limited
participation in clinical trials,” said Badhri Srinivasan, head, global
development operations, Novartis. “By combining our complementary sets
of expertise, we have the opportunity to develop a new trial recruitment
model that gives patients and their physicians greater insight into the
process of finding treatments for their disease, and how they can
participate.”
“The clinical research process is antiquated in many ways. Our
collaboration with Verily aims to redefine and redesign this process to
make clinical trials more accessible to patients, and clinical research
more precise and targeted so we can obtain results and seek approvals
sooner, which would put therapies into the hands of physicians and their
patients earlier,” said Debbie Profit, Ph.D., M.S., and vice president,
applied innovation and process improvement, Otsuka. “As an early adopter
of the Baseline Platform, we have the opportunity to leverage real-world
data, through sensors, EHR integrations and other tools to corroborate
evidence around the treatments and interventions we are studying – while
reducing the burden on clinical trial participants.”
“In clinical research, for several years now we have been pursuing
game-changing possibilities to deploy digital technology and data
science to re-engineer how we operate,” said Rod MacKenzie, chief
development officer and executive vice president, Pfizer. “The science
behind our potential new medicines is cutting edge, yet many clinical
trial processes have remained relatively unchanged over decades. To
bring scientific breakthroughs to patients more quickly and increase the
diversity of the patient population in our clinical trials, Pfizer is
committed to exploring new technologies and innovative ways to conduct
clinical research, and we are proud to partner with Verily in that
effort.”
“Our scientific knowledge has exploded over the past generation, but
efficiently bringing these new breakthroughs from lab bench to patient
requires us to greatly improve the way we conduct these complex clinical
trials,” said Lionel Bascles, global head of clinical sciences and
operations, Sanofi. “Project Baseline will allow us to better recruit
appropriate patients and more efficiently integrate data for a greater
understanding of diseases, reconnecting trials to our patients’
healthcare journeys.”
About Project Baseline
Verily launched Project Baseline in 2017 with the goal of bridging the
gap between research and care. Its first initiative was the Project
Baseline Health Study, a landmark study in partnership with Duke
University School of Medicine, Stanford Medicine, Google and the
American Heart Association to develop the technology and tools to map
human health. Verily has since expanded Project Baseline through
alliances with patients, patient-advocacy groups, academic research
institutions, health systems and life sciences organizations to build a
connected research ecosystem. Verily and the Project Baseline team
continue to develop tools and technology like the Baseline Platform, an
end-to-end evidence generation platform, to engage more patients and
clinicians in research, make it faster to conduct studies and collect
higher quality, more comprehensive data from the real world. For more
information, please visit www.projectbaseline.com.
About Verily
Launched in 2015, Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on life
sciences and healthcare. Verily’s mission is to make the world’s health
data useful so that people enjoy healthier lives. Verily develops tools
and devices to collect, organize and activate health data, and creates
interventions to prevent and manage disease. Verily partners with
leading life sciences, medical device and government organizations,
using deep hardware, software, scientific, and healthcare expertise to
enable faster development, meaningful advances, and deployment at scale.
For more information, please visit www.verily.com.
About Novartis
Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives.
As a leading global medicines company, we use innovative science and
digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of
great medical need. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently
rank among the world’s top companies investing in research and
development. Novartis products reach more than 750 million people
globally and we are finding innovative ways to expand access to our
latest treatments. About 105,000 people of more than 140 nationalities
work at Novartis around the world. Find out more at www.novartis.com.
About Otsuka
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Company, a global healthcare company, established
a presence in the U.S. in 1973. Today, its U.S. affiliates include
Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization,Inc. (OPDC) and
Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. These two companies’ 1,800 employees
develop and commercialize medicines in the areas of mental health,
nephrology and cardiology, using cutting-edge technology to address
unmet healthcare needs. OPDC is an indirect subsidiary of Otsuka
Pharmaceutical Company, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The Otsuka
group of companies employed 47,000 people worldwide and had consolidated
sales of approximately USD 11.7 billion in 2018. All Otsuka stories
start by taking the road less travelled. Learn more about Otsuka in the
U.S. at www.otsuka-us.com.
About Pfizer Inc: Working together for a healthier world®
At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies
to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive
to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery,
development and manufacture of health care products. Our global
portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world’s
best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues
work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness,
prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases
of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world’s
premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with
health care providers, governments and local communities to support and
expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For
more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who
rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to
investors on our website at www.pfizer.com.
In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.pfizer.com
and follow us on Twitter at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube
and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer.
About Sanofi
Sanofi is dedicated to supporting people through their health
challenges. We are a global biopharmaceutical company focused on human
health. We prevent illness with vaccines, provide innovative treatments
to fight pain and ease suffering. We stand by the few who suffer from
rare diseases and the millions with long-term chronic conditions. With
more than 100,000 people in 100 countries, Sanofi is transforming
scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe.
Sanofi, Empowering Life.
Contacts
Media Contacts
Verily
Emily Friedman
efriedman@verily.com
650-933-0660
Novartis
Hannah Miller
hannah.miller@novartis.com
+41
79 387 1412
Otsuka
Robert Murphy
robert.murphy@otsuka-us.com
609-249-7262
Pfizer
Samantha Reardon
samantha.reardon@pfizer.com
347-491-9717
Sanofi
Anna Robinson
anna.robinson@sanofi.com
+33
6 33 77 86 21
