NHS strikes another deal with clinical AI company Sensyne Health

Sensyne Health has signed a five-year non-exclusive Strategic Research Agreement (SRA) with Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (MKUH).

The non-exclusive agreement will apply Sensyne's artificial intelligence technology to anonymised patient data for research into new medicines.

MKUH is organised into four clinical divisions (medicine, surgery, women and children and core clinical) and a number of corporate directorates. The dataset covers 650,000 unique patient records.

Sensyne has already signed SRAs with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Wye Valley and George Eliot NHS Trusts.

MKUH will take an equity stake in Sensyne Health and receive 1,428,571 ordinary shares in the UK company, representing 1.1% of its existing issued share capital. MKUH will also get an investment of up to £250,000 per year over the 5-year term of the contract for information technology.

The agreement brings the total share ownership held by NHS Trusts in Sensyne to 10.86%.

MKUH will also receive a royalty on revenues generated by Sensyne from research undertaken under the SRA.  The hospital trust said any financial returns will be invested back into the NHS to fund patient care.

The news followed Sensyne's announcement of a new research agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

BMS said it will use Sensyne’s technology for research into disease progression and patient stratification for patients with various diseases with Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPNs).

MPNs are a group of rare blood diseases characterised by the overproduction of one or more types of blood cells.

It is Sensyne Health’s fourth successive partnership with a major pharmaceutical company following collaborations signed with Bayer, Roche and Alexion. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.