ZS to buy machine learning specialist Trials.ai

Professional services firm ZS will buy study design contractor Trials.ai to add machine learning algorithms to its clinical trial business.

The deal –of which financial terms were not disclosed – will aid ZS’s ability to help clients identify risks, reduce costs, and accelerate clinical development timelines according to chairman, Jaideep Bajaj.

“We know our clients want to modernize 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,” he said.

This was echoed by Mike Martin, who leads ZS’s clinical development practice area.

“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 risks and opportunities, model operational trade-offs in real time and better see how study decisions will affect participants, sites and sponsors.”

According to its website, ZS’s study unit has worked on more than 900 clinical trials for 30 plus biopharmaceutical industry sponsors in multiple indications at sites worldwide.

Machine learning

San Diego, California-based Trials.ai was set up in 2016 with the aim of using “real-time and data-driven intelligence” to support study protocol development. The firm claims it can save drug developers time and money.

Trials.ai uses machine learning – an artificial intelligence technology that can find patterns in data with minimal human interference.

According to an assessment of the burgeoning AI-enabled trials sector published in the BMJ in 2021, Trials.ai uses its technology to try and help study designers to minimize the risk of failures and delays.

“Trials.AI allows investigators to upload protocols and uses natural language processing to identify potential pitfalls and barriers to successful trial completion, such as inclusion/exclusion criteria or outcome measures.”

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