AstraZeneca has entered the trial services space through a new company that will make its digital tech available to CROs.
The company – called Evinova – will operate as a separate health-tech business within AstraZeneca. It will provide digital trial design, management, and data collection tools to clinical research organizations (CROs), including Parexel and Fortrea which have already signed service agreements.
According to AstraZeneca “Evinova will combine clinical and regulatory experience gained at AstraZeneca with its deep expertise in digital technology spanning strategy and development, digital product development, data science and AI, user experience design and behavioural science.
The firm added that “In addition to digital solutions, Evinova will offer custom scientific solutions, including remote patient monitoring and novel endpoint solutions, as well as trial design and consulting services.
Evinova is also working with Accenture and Amazon Web Services to “expand the global reach of its digital products.”
Digital tech
The centerpiece of Evinova’s offering will by AstraZeneca’s “unified trial solution,” which is described as a GxP-validated solution designed to help site staff and sponsors staff improve delivery of traditional, hybrid and decentralised trials.
CROs will also have access to an AI-powered study design tool that – Evinova claims – can provide automatic costings and assess operational feasibility of a proposed study based on actual data from that indication at a country and site level.
Digital trials
Cristina Duran – AstraZeneca’s chief digital health officer – who will serve as Evinova president, welcomed the opportunity to provide the firm’s digital drug research technologies to the wider life sciences community.
“We believe this will help propel the sector forward in digital health, as we know healthcare professionals and regulators need digital solutions that work across pharma and support patients broadly.”
The comments are in keeping with the conclusions of a recent study Duran co-authored about the role digital technologies can play in accelerating and reducing the cost of drug research.
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