PAREXEL, Sanofi team for wearables study

Parexel and Sanofi are to undertake research to find out just how useful wearables are for patients and investigators in clinical trials.

The promise of wearables is that they can improve data collection for clinical trials and help address many common issues like recruitment, retention and patient engagement.

They also have the potential to gather real-world data for investigational drugs - something agencies like the FDA are showing more interest in.

Because of these and many other benefits, pharma is looking at ways to incorporate wearables into clinical studies.

But there is no solid evidence base to prove these claims for wearables, so the contract research organisation and the pharma company are studying just how potentially effective and time-saving they are.

“We believe the use of wearables to collect data from trial participants represents a breakthrough in the digital transformation within the industry,” said Xavier Flinois, President of Parexel Informatics. “Working with Sanofi, we believe we have a strong opportunity to streamline and automate data collection from multiple devices, collect high-quality data remotely and generate meaningful results, all while reducing burden on patients and sites, as well as lowering costs.”

The partnership between Parexel and Sanofi will explore the potential of wearables in a pilot study.

The study will specifically look at Parexel's Perceptive MyTrials - a clinical trial data-collection platform the company launched in 2014.

The platform intends to produce richer data into investigational therapy and method effectiveness by compiling data from wearables and sensors.

In this instance, the trial will use a number of devices which will feed data into the Perceptive MyTrials platform. The devices to be used have not been named.

For Sanofi, the trial represents a validation study for an area it continues to become involved in.

Last September, the firm formed a joint venture with Verily called Onduo. The project aims to improve diabetes care and will likely involve wearables.

“Wearables are a core component of Sanofi’s digital trials strategy, and represent an important approach to automate patient processes using the latest technologies to bring new therapies to patients sooner," said Lionel Bascles, Global Head of Clinical Sciences and Operations of Sanofi.