Thermo Fisher, Medidata Acorn AI Partner to Optimize Clinical Trials

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has entered a multiyear partnership with Medidata Acorn AI, a Dassault Systèmes company leading the digital transformation of life sciences. Through this partnership, the PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher has collaborated with Medidata to develop PPD TrueCast, a comprehensive enterprise application combining extensive patient recruitment and site performance data with predictive models and advanced analytics. This new platform aims to provide pharma and biopharma companies with actionable insights to optimize clinical research site selection, trial enrollment and study cycle times.

“The clinical trial industry continues to demand new tools in big data and predictive analytics to improve trial planning and execution and accelerate clinical trials ,” said David M Johnston, Ph.D., senior vice president and president, clinical research, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “As a result of the vast site-level data amassed by PPD and Medidata, customers now have even greater visibility into how a trial is performing for any study our clinical research business is helping them run. We already have successfully deployed these machine learning-based insights to give us a competitive site selection advantage in the crowded trial landscape.”

TrueCast is designed to deliver deep site-performance data in real time from an extensive global footprint of trial sites. The platform utilizes advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models to forecast cycle times and enrollment performance, enabling simplified scenario planning and optimized country and site selection. During a study’s enrollment period, TrueCast automatically tracks study performance and predicts enrollment risk. When mitigation is needed, the application provides access to real-time site performance metrics to identify high-performing sites.

“AI and advanced analytics play an increasingly critical role in a rapidly changing clinical trial environment," said Fareed Melhem, senior vice president, Medidata Acorn AI. "We’re delighted to be working side by side with Thermo Fisher’s clinical research business to combine our technology, data and expertise. Together, we are now offering companies new ways to rethink their clinical trials through access to live, cross-industry site performance data.”