CHICAGO (GenomeWeb) – Startup health data integrator and analytics firm Datavant has announced a series of partnerships with genomics researchers.
Notably, San Francisco-based Datavant inked a deal with biopharmaceutical company Global Genomics Group (G3) to develop new models for designing and interpreting clinical trials in hopes of increasing speed and success of drug development. Datavant will offer its artificial intelligence-driven Clinical Trial Cloud to support G3's G3LOBAL database of whole-genome sequencing, whole-transcriptome sequencing, and lipoprotein proteomics, and precision imaging records.
"The traditional model of drug development and clinical trial programs is no longer sustainable, and we believe that the combination of biological big data, together with sophisticated analytical tools, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, are essential to turning around the pharmaceutical industry and drug development," G3 Founder and CEO Szilard Voros said in a statement. "We see Datavant at a very important intersection of cutting-edge analytical sciences and life sciences and we are looking forward to working together."
The other two deals involve an academic partnership with Duke Clinical Research Institute and a strategic alliance with AI vendor Verge Genomics.
Datavant, which launched just three months ago, will provide DCRI with analytics tools and access to 150 different data sources — from genomic tests, drug trials, billing claims, pharmacy records, and electronic health records — in hopes of improving design and interpretation of clinical trials. The company will be offering its data sets to Verge for similar purposes.
"Verge's robust data and expertise in computational biology add tremendous value in contextualizing signals seen in clinical trials and providing a foundation for better trial designs," said Travis May, president and cofounder of Datavant.
"Too many drugs fail clinical trials due to deficiencies in trial design and interpretation, depriving patients of new treatment options they desperately need," May added. "We believe that the combination of the DCRI's analytical expertise and rich datasets combined with Datavant's products and data hold the potential to be transformative for the industry."