Aetion announced a new integrated solution focused on advancing the use of real-world evidence for small and mid-sized biopharmaceutical companies. The new offering has been co-developed with IBM Watson Health as part of a strategic partnership announced at the 35th International Conference on Pharmacoepidemiology and Therapeutic Risk Management.
Aetion is offering components of the IBM MarketScan® Research Databases data, now embedded into its Aetion Evidence Platform®, to provide a turn-key solution for conducting regulatory-grade data analysis needed to unlock answers about the safety, effectiveness, and value of medical treatments. The combined IBM MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental Databases comprise one of the largest proprietary claims data sets available, which includes de-identified medical and drug claims; the MarketScan Lab Database includes lab results for a subset of individuals with claims.
This joint effort offers Aetion's customers a tool that can help them streamline the R&D process and address key questions in safety, medical affairs, and market access. The bundled product is designed to enable customers to conduct exploratory and descriptive analyses, including feasibility counts, prevalence and incidence, disease burden, population exploration, drug treatment pathways, hypothesis generation, comparative safety, and comparative effectiveness.
"Historically, substantial investment in real-world evidence has been almost the exclusive domain of large pharma," said Carolyn Magill, Aetion CEO. "By combining IBM Watson Health's data source and a best-in-class analytics platform in this bundled offering, innovative mid-market biopharma companies can now benefit from integrating real-world data into drug development and commercialization to help them solve data-driven challenges."
Real-world evidence studies enable researchers to supplement clinical trials by optimizing the development of treatments, determining new indications for drugs, and advancing regulatory approvals. Aetion is partnering with Brigham and Women's Hospital on the FDA demonstration project, RCT DUPLICATE, which will inform the agency's forthcoming guidance on the use of RWE for drug approvals.