EMA will use Panalgo software for real-world data analytics

Six months after rebranding from BHE, Panalgo has won a contract to supply the European Medicines Agency (EMA) with its IHD data analytics platform, pledging to streamline its public health efforts.

IHD – or Instant Health Data – will be used by the EMA to carry out data analyses and examine medicinal product utilisation, answer questions about safety and efficacy, and understand how treatments perform in real-world settings, said the Boston, US-based company.

The use of real-world evidence (RWE) has grown rapidly in pharma over the last few years, as healthcare payers and regulatory agencies have tried to get a deeper understanding of the impact medicinal products have in actual practice, rather than just within clinical trial settings.

“Our company is strongly aligned with the EMA’s public health goals, for which timely evidence-based insights are of particular importance, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic,” commented the US company’s CEO Joseph Menzin.

Panalgo is also opening an office in Amsterdam, the home of the EMA, in order to provide close support for the roll-out and management of the new software at the regulator.

Panalgo says IHD’s library of healthcare-specific algorithms does away with the need for complex programming and allows users to “focus on what matters most: turning data into insights”, using sources like electronic health records and patient registries.

There has been a spike in the use of data analytics by healthcare organisations during the coronavirus pandemic to try to guide the public health response to the crisis, for example to make effective, real-time use of resources.

The new agreement with the EMA adds a new dimension to Panalgo’s data analytics business, as most of its clients have so far been life science companies and research organisations.

The company says IHD passed a rigorous assessment by the EMA – in competition with software from other providers – and will support decision-making at the population level, including therapy risk/benefit and life cycle analyses that can be used in public health planning.

“Most of Panalgo’s life sciences clients already rely on IHD to perform rapid analyses that support regulatory initiatives,” said Menzin.

“The IHD platform will be a valuable tool to allow collaboration between drug manufacturers and regulatory agencies, such as the EMA,” he added.

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