Emmes’ AI unit predicts trial sector use will expand

CRO sector interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is growing, but model training and privacy concerns remain a challenge for services firms according to Veridix AI.

The firm – a subsidiary of US contractor Emmes that was founded in January – told Clinical Insider that while the services sector acknowledges the potential benefits of AI and modelling in drug studies, to date only a few contract research organizations (CROs) have developed a comprehensive services package.

“There is clearly broad interest in AI within the clinical research community. The space is not very competitive yet because most service companies are struggling with privacy and quality of the generated responses,” said Noble Shore, vice president of technology strategy and product adoption at Veridix AI.

Veridix’s approach is to use data from the 2,000 plus clinical trials conducted by Emmes to develop and fine tune models.

“We have a lot of relevant data that will help us fine tune our models for greater accuracy as compared to our competitors who are building the tech piece in isolation without the backbone of scientific expertise that we have,” Shore continued.

AI applications

AI has the potential for broad application in drug trials, however, according to Veridix, start-up and analytics are the main areas where it is being used at present.

“We are seeing the most demand at the “bookends” of clinical research: the trial planning and start-up phase as well as the analysis and reporting phase.”

Trial planning, in contrast, has not been a focus for AI use to date, although Veridix expects this to change.

“The processes for designing and authoring a protocol or clinical study report have seen less innovation over the last 20 years compared to the conduct phase which has seen an explosion of new technologies. AI is exceptionally good at ingesting large amounts of information and summarizing it clearly and concisely, so there is great opportunity in these phases to accelerate the trial,” Shore said.

He added “There has been a lot of interest from pharma companies, with new business coming in from ILiAD Biotechnologies and Serum Institute to name a few. Our investments in AI and technology have started to show returns in real studies, which has led to tremendous growth in our opportunity pipeline.”

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