Sanofi works with TriNetX to optimise trial recruitment

Sanofi is one of several pharma companies that is on a quest to use digital health to make trials cheaper and more effective – and has found another partner to help it.

Global health data firm TriNetX said it is working with the pharma company, using patient electronic health records to optimise trial recruitment.

The records will also help make the trial more efficient and could give insight into improving their design.

Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, TriNetX said that it will drawn on data including demographics, diagnoses, procedures, medications, labs, oncology and genomics.

Its technology is based around a cloud-accessible database, and aims to reduce the complexity of trial design.

The company can analyse billions of clinical facts about its patient population to support real-time modelling of proposed trial protocols.

Researchers can quickly visualise how these protocols would be expected to operate in a real trial, allowing them to make rapid modifications if needed.

The technology uses predictive analytics so researchers can forecast the expected size of the patient population that might meet the study criteria.

TriNetX says the technology can also help identify institutions that could be trial sites, and also identify eligible patients who might otherwise be missed.

Sanofi has since last March been working with Science 37, a Los Angeles based company that oversees digital trials.

Then last July it partners with Evidation, a firm that identifies and monitors ‘digital biomarkers’ in patients to better understand therapeutic outcomes and the different factors that may affect them.

Lionel Bascles, global head of clinical sciences and operations at Sanofi, said: “Clinical trials are becoming ever more complex, and anything we can do to reduce the time and cost of a trial means therapies can be evaluated more rapidly and reach people faster. Working with companies like TriNetX is an important way to do that, by bringing both technology and knowledge to Sanofi’s work.”

Earlier this month, one of Sanofi’s main rivals in the diabetes market, Eli Lilly, said it had begun working with digital health firm Livongo in a collaboration focused on ‘real-world’ studies.