ZS to acquire Trials.ai to deliver pharmaceuticals faster

It has been announced that global management consulting and technology firm ZS Associates has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Trials.ai, an intelligent study design company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to optimise the experience and deliver pharmaceuticals to market faster.

Michael Martin, principal at the 1983-founded ZS and lead of its clinical development practice area, said: “Clinical studies too often struggle to find participants and encounter delays, but life sciences companies will now be able to use the ZS|Trials.ai solution to identify risk and opportunities, model operational trade-offs in real-time and better see how study decisions will affect participants, sites, and sponsors.”

ZS’s focus is on delivering end-to-end solutions that offer sponsors the tools and expertise they need to reimagine study design.

Jaideep Bajaj, chairman of ZS, commented that, by acquiring Trials.ai, the company can augment how it helps clients identify risks and reduce costs, while accelerating clinical development. He explained:

“We know our clients want to modernise study design, and I’m confident the ZS|Trials.ai solution, combined with ZS’s tools and decades of expertise, will help study sponsors deliver therapies to market faster.”

Meanwhile, co-founder of Trials.ai, Kim Walpole said that she and fellow co-founder Tom Walpole had started the company when they identified an opportunity to use an AI-powered, end-to-end solution that was anchored on optimisation, digitisation, and connectivity to improve study design. She added:

“I’m proud that Trials.ai is revolutionising study design and adding real-time, data-driven intelligence in a way that empowers study teams to think critically about how to improve patient and site experiences, while saving pharmaceutical companies time and money.”

Walpole continued: “I’m confident joining forces with ZS will allow us to reach more study sponsors and ultimately play a role in delivering vital treatments to market faster because patients don’t have time to wait.”

Artificial intelligence is a key focus across the industry this year. Only last month, tech company CytoReason announced it had signed a multi-year, multimillion dollar deal with Sanofi to deliver AI for drug discovery and development in the field of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). And in the same month AstraZeneca teamed up with Indian digital health specialist Qure.ai and a clinical group in the UK to test an AI-powered technology to help radiologists detecting lung cancer in chest X-rays.