US drug maker MSD will use cloud analytics developed Saama Technologies to bolster its clinical researcher capabilities under a new accord.
The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – will see MSD apply Saama’s life science analytics cloud system to its clinical research programs in a bid to “expedite pipeline progress.”
MSD will integrate LSAC into its clinical development systems to improve speed and efficiency related to the ingestion, curation, and transformation of data and facilitate processing from multiple internal and external data sources to multiple business platforms and analytics needs.
Dr. Eliav Barr, Senior Vice President, Head of Global Clinical Development and Chief Medical Officer, Merck Research Laboratories said the agreement was motivated by a desire to improve how the firm handles trial data.
"With the increasing demands of Merck’s growing pipeline, it is crucial that we continue to embrace the latest digital technologies to optimize and expedite our data management, clinical trial operations and biostatistics capabilities.
“By integrating Saama’s Machine Learning-driven platform across our clinical functions we aim to fuel significant process efficiencies and elevate the user experience for our talented clinical teams.”
Saama's describes its technology as a “machine learning-enabled” data management and cognitive insight platform that is specifically designed to accelerate clinical research outcomes.
For the uninitiated, machine learning is the practice of developing computer programs that recognize patterns in data using processes that are analogous to human learning.
The basic idea is that the software looks at a pool of data and guesses what pattern is sought and then, having determined how accurate the initial guess was, adjusts with the aim of making the prediction more accurate.
Saama claims its models are trained using more than a hundred million clinical data points which should be of considerable benefit to MSD according to company founder Suresh Katta.
“LSAC will enable Merck’s team to optimize and automate processes, accelerate cycle times, and reduce costs in the quest to bring new treatments to patients sooner.”
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