A North Carolina-based company is partnering with Amazon Web Services to create what it hopes will be the next-generation platform for conducting clinical trials.
StringProviding a platform to run decentralized clinical trials, the results of the collaboration, announced Tuesday, are expected to improve trial efficiency and reduce costs through greater use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.the announcement
“What’s really important is that it’s not just about ‘let’s build technology for technology’s sake,'” Thread co-founder and CEO John Reites said in a phone interview about the partnership with AWS.
The partnership is focused on helping modernize clinical trials in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, when clinical trials are more reliant than ever on virtual and remote technologies, he said.
“Many sponsors are now looking at how to turn rapidly deployed interventions, such as consumer-grade videoconferencing and home care, into an integrated, strategic approach to experimenting with virtualization,” McKinsey & Company consultants said in June 2021 report on decentralization of clinical trialssThe process often involves bringing trials closer to where patients happen to live, rather than concentrating research in large academic medical centers and similar centralized locations.
Through their collaboration, Thread and Amazon plan to focus on automating processes that are still manual, generating better insights from the data collected during trials, and adopting these technologies on a larger scale.
“I’m making the components that our customers need now, but even more so in the next two to three to four years,” he said.
For example, at many clinical trial sites, the same data must be entered multiple times into multiple systems, he said. Thread and Amazon are building a framework to eliminate this need. The new feature could also provide more insights into why patients drop out of a trial, allowing for better trial design, Reites said.
The partners started working together earlier this year. Reites said they plan to start rolling out new features for the Thread platform in the second quarter of 2022.According to Thread, their goals include a 30% reduction in the time it takes to attract customers who want to offer trials and a 25% cost savings by simplifying data entry
Headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, Thread has over six years of experience in the field. Its clients include Novartis and Procter & Gamble, many of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations and hundreds of biotech companies. The company has 11 offices worldwide.
AWS Increase experience using data and technology to enhance user experience across multiple industries.
“Improvements such as AI support, automated processes, frictionless data access, and enhanced security can advance precision medicine by reducing the time it takes to bring innovative, life-saving medicines to patients around the world,” said Dan, general manager of Healthcare and Life. Sheeran, Science of Amazon Web Services, said in an emailed response to questions.
In addition to Thread, there are many players in the decentralized clinical trials market, including edible, Hardener and Science 37.
Photo: Warchi, Getty Images
