Pfizer, Concerto collaborate on AI in precision oncology

Dive Brief:

Precision oncology-focused Concerto HealthAI said Tuesday it will work with Pfizer to apply real-world datasets and artificial intelligence techniques to develop new and more precise treatment options for patients with solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.
The collaboration aims to speed the pace of actionable patient insights for Pfizer's investigational therapies as well as commercially available therapeutics, Concerto said.
It is Concerto's second AI collaboration with a big pharma company in recent weeks. The company in late March announced an agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb to use real-world evidence to accelerate clinical trials and improve precision treatment for a range of cancers.

Dive Insight:

AI work to date in the health sphere has focused mainly on uses in imaging and diagnostics, according to consultants at CB Insights, but clinical insights and risk analytics, clinical trials and drug discovery have also attracted a lot of funding.

Concerto's work with Pfizer is expected to focus on identifying new and more precise treatment options, refining study designs and speeding completion times for outcomes studies. The effort aims to find and help patients who may benefit from new therapeutic combinations.

The agreement will use Concerto HealthAI's eurekaHealth platform, AI models and real-world clinical electronic medical record and healthcare claims, Concerto said. Data from clinical practices participating in the American Society of Clinical Oncology's CancerLinQ initiative and others will be used.

The collaboration will develop new synthetic control arm and prospective study designs, for both pre- and post-approval research, based on real-world data outcomes for therapeutics, Concerto said. The plan is to build on work in study designs based on real-world data that CancerLinQ, Concerto HealthAI and others have undertaken in collaboration with FDA.

A Concerto HealthAI-Pfizer joint steering committee will oversee the collaboration, with the first outcomes research and publications expected in early 2020.

Pfizer is among the healthcare companies investing heavily in AI and also recently teamed with IBM Watson to identify better targets for cancer during the discovery phase, though Watson's abilities have come into question.