Medable teams with CVS to boost diversity in clinical trials
Medable says its agreement with US pharmacy chain CVS will increase participation of underrepresented groups in late phase clinical research.
The Palo Alto, California-based trial technology firm partnered with CVS last week in a bid to “expand clinical trial access and engagement for patients” through the latter organization’s chain of MinuteClinic businesses.
The idea is to combine Medable’s software platform with CVS’s clinics to allow patients to take part in Phase III and IV clinical trials more easily according to Sanskriti Thakur, chief growth officer at Medable.
She told us “Medable and CVS Health are aligned on their mission to bring equitable healthcare access to everybody, everywhere. Through this collaboration, we will directly diminish one of the greatest barriers to clinical trial participation: access.
“Patients can travel 50 miles or more to reach a trial site. By turning a pharmacy into a point of access for clinical trials, we allow patients to have routine site visits in a setting that’s not only close to home but also more comfortable. We believe that this will significantly change the way sponsors and patients view and engage with each other in the long term.”
The collaboration will be managed by CVS Health’s clinical trial services unit, which was launched last year in part to boost participation in COVID-19 related studies. Since then, CVS says, the division has helped 300,000 volunteers take part in clinical research.
The agreement is also designed to increase diversity in clinical trials according to Thakur who told us one of the key issues of drug development is the ability to recruit patients quickly and with meaningful representation across all backgrounds.
“Some 48% of sites do not complete enrolment and in a typical clinical trial, only 10% of patients enrolled are of minority background in contrast to the 40% non-white population in the US. CVS is rooted in communities, with its pharmacies located within 5 miles of 40% of vulnerable population of the US."
She predicted “The Medable/CVS Health partnership enables sponsors and CROs to more efficiently and effectively educate, enroll, and engage with patients from various backgrounds. Through this association, the healthcare industry comes another step closer to equitable access to care for all. We fully expect our partners and customers to view this collaboration positively.”
Buys skin-focused digital tech firm
In other news Medable has acquired skin disease focused digital health technology company Omhu A/S from Danish drug firm Leo Pharma A/S.
The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – adds a suite of mobile data applications and 38 strong software engineering team to Medable’s business.
Omhu’s technologies includes a skin-tracking mobile app that helps people record disease progression and applications that let patients seek assessments from the firm’s in-house dermatologists online or based on photos and medical history.
Buying Omhu also gives Medable a third location in Europe, behind its office in Dublin, Ireland and Zurich, in Switzerland which were set up last year.
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