ICON applies IBM Watson Clinical Trial Matching to Oncology
Clinical Trials
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
ICON plc, (NASDAQ:ICLR) a global provider of drug development
solutions and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical
device industries, today announced that it is working with IBM
(NYSE:IBM) to help reduce the time and costs of drug development, while
also offering patients enhanced quality of care by connecting them to
relevant clinical trials. ICON will tap Watson's cognitive computing
power to help automate the cumbersome process of identifying patients
who meet the criteria for a clinical trial, and to analyse protocols to
assess trial feasibility and identify optimal trial sites.
Initially, ICON is applying Watson
Clinical Trial Matching to its breast, lung, colon and rectal cancer
trials. The solution enables ICON to advise sponsors how many patients
match their trial criteria, where they are located and how they will
recruit them. IBM's
Watson Health Cloud will facilitate access to de-identified patient
data, including 50 million patient records contained in the data set
from Explorys, which IBM acquired in April. At the same time, ICON
enhances IBM Watson's capabilities by providing expertise into clinical
trial protocols and clinical operations.
The cost and time involved in clinical trials is considerable. More than
$1.3B is spent on patient recruitment by drug developers each year and
yet fewer than 5% of cancer patients participate in a clinical trial. It
also typically takes 6-12 months to start up a global phase III drug
trial and another 12 months to enroll the required number of patients.
Commenting on the announcement, ICON's Chief Operating Officer, Dr.
Steve Cutler, said: "Recruiting the required number of patients for
clinical trials is a constant challenge for our customers and can
represent more than 30% of total study costs. By applying IBM Watson to
our clinical trials, we have the potential to revolutionise clinical
trial feasibility, patient recruitment and study start-up timelines
which will help our customers take significant time and cost from their
development programmes. Together with IBM, we are also providing a
better and faster way to connect patients with clinical trials that are
most relevant to them. Today's announcement is an excellent example of
disruptive innovation and represents ICON and IBM's shared vision for
using industry-leading technologies and real-word data sets to improve
clinical development."
"Clinical trials are crucial in the drug and treatment development
process, but when it comes to identifying appropriate trial candidates,
there are significant data challenges, which can contribute to delays
for bringing new therapies to market," said Sean Hogan, Vice President
and General Manager, IBM Healthcare. "Through cognitive computing and
cloud-based data, our goal is to help our clients accelerate the time it
takes to complete clinical trials and reach conclusive trial results."
About IBM Watson: Pioneering a New Era of Computing
Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing
capability representing a new era in computing. The system, delivered
through the cloud, analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex
questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based
answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over
time, from previous interactions. In April 2015, the company launched
IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. The new unit
will help improve the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers to
innovate by surfacing new insights from the massive amount of personal
health data being created daily. The Watson Health Cloud allows this
information to be de-identified, shared and combined with a dynamic and
constantly growing aggregated view of clinical, research and social
health data.
About ICON plc
ICON plc is a global provider of drug development solutions and services
to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The
company specialises in the strategic development, management and
analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound
selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. With headquarters in Dublin,
Ireland, ICON currently, operates from 81 locations in 37 countries and
has approximately 11,300 employees.
Further information is available at www.iconplc.com/innovation
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Learn more about this story at http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2015/09/using-data-analytics-speed-clinical-drug-trials.html
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These
statements are based on management's current expectations and
information currently available, including current economic and industry
conditions. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or
actual results, and actual results, developments and business decisions
may differ from those stated in this press release. The forward-looking
statements are subject to future events, risks, uncertainties and other
factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those
projected in the statements, including, but not limited to, the ability
to enter into new contracts, maintain client relationships, manage the
opening of new offices and offering of new services, the integration of
new business mergers and acquisitions, as well as economic and global
market conditions and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time
to time in SEC reports filed by ICON, all of which are difficult to
predict and some of which are beyond our control. For these reasons, you
should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements when
making investment decisions. The word "expected" and variations of such
words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are only as of the date they are
made and we do not undertake any obligation to update publicly any
forward-looking statement, either as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise. More information about the risks and uncertainties
relating to these forward-looking statements may be found in SEC reports
filed by ICON, including its Form 20-F, F-1, S-8 and F-3, which are
available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov.
ICON/ICLR-G
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150910005111/en/
ICON
Media Contact
Rebecca Power
Weber
Shandwick
Tel: +44 (0) 207 067 0866
Email: RPower@webershandwick.com
or
IBM
Media
Contact
Lorie Fiber
Tel: + 1-646-318-0575
Source: ICON plc
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