Medidata and Syapse have announced a new partnership to update oncology clinical trials for the age of precision medicine.
Medidata and Syapse will jointly develop a portfolio of solutions to make it easier for cancer patients to access potentially life-saving clinical trials, with a focus on democratizing access for patients in community health systems.
The partnership will initially build products to assist trial sponsors in designing eligibility criteria, identify community health systems as trial sites, and enable oncologists and their care teams to easily identify patients for enrollment into cutting-edge clinical trials.
In 2017, the approval of novel drugs in the U.S. hit a 21-year high, with many targeting rare diseases and types of cancer. The continued growth of precision medicine compounds the challenges of finding the right patients for the right trials in oncology. This approach segments populations based on both traditional clinical factors and novel molecular characteristics, thus reducing population sizes for targeted therapy and immunotherapy trials.
“With oncology becoming increasingly focused on targeted therapy and immunotherapy, it is necessary to rethink our approach to clinical trial design in order to fully realize the vision of precision medicine,” said Glen de Vries, Medidata president and co-founder. “We’re excited to partner with Syapse to bring this vision to reality. By working at the intersection of health systems and the life sciences industry, Syapse and Medidata can both increase access to innovative clinical trials and accelerate the development of novel cancer therapies.”