AstraZeneca launches Evinova, a health-tech business to accelerate innovation across the life sciences sector, the delivery of clinical trials and better health outcomes

AstraZeneca today launches Evinova, set to be a leading provider of digital health solutions to better meet the needs of healthcare professionals, regulators and patients. With long-term backing from AstraZeneca and strategic collaborations with Parexel and Fortrea, Evinova offers globally-scaled digital products and services to the life sciences and healthcare sector.

Evinova will prioritise bringing to market established and scaled digital technology solutions already being used globally by AstraZeneca to optimise clinical trial design and delivery. This will reduce the time and cost of developing new medicines, bring care closer to home for patients and reduce the burden on health systems. Evinova will also pursue opportunities in digital remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics with a pipeline of digital innovations in these areas.

Drawing on AstraZeneca’s deep experience of developing novel therapeutics and with insights from thousands of patients and clinical researchers, Evinova will provide established technology solutions to pharma, biotech and CROs to support clinical research globally. The technologies have already been used in the successful delivery of multiple AstraZeneca-sponsored clinical trials in over 40 countries.

Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca, said: “The future of medicine development can be accelerated with digital solutions. We believe Evinova’s combination of scientific expertise and track record in developing AI-enabled digital technologies at scale, provides a real opportunity to fundamentally improve patient care, drive healthcare transformation and reduce carbon emissions.”

Cristina Duran, President of Evinova, said: “We are excited to bring the portfolio of globally-scaled digital solutions developed to serve AstraZeneca’s drug development pipeline to the wider life sciences community. We believe this will help propel the sector forward in digital health, as we know healthcare professionals and regulators need digital solutions that work across pharma and support patients broadly. Coming from within the sector and with proven experience, Evinova will be uniquely placed to deliver science-based, evidence-led and human experience-driven solutions with the aim of improving patient experience and outcomes.”

Globally-leading CROs Parexel and Fortrea have entered into agreements to offer Evinova digital health solutions to their wide customer base. To accelerate industry adoption and sustain and expand the global reach of its digital products, Evinova is collaborating with Accenture and Amazon Web Services.

Evinova will combine clinical and regulatory experience gained at AstraZeneca with its deep expertise in digital technology spanning strategy and development, digital product development, data science and AI, user experience design and behavioural science. In addition to digital solutions, Evinova will offer custom scientific solutions, including remote patient monitoring and novel endpoint solutions, as well as trial design and consulting services.

Notes

Evinova products and solutions

Evinova has co-created with patients the Evinova drug development suite, a suite of digital solutions that aims to bring benefits to all participants – patients, healthcare professionals and researchers. The suite includes:

Evinova unified trial solution: A global GxP-validated solution for patients, clinical trial site staff and clinical trial sponsor staff to improve delivery of clinical trials. It enables the delivery of traditional, hybrid and decentralised clinical trials while enhancing the patient experience. The unified trial solution supports direct collection of primary and secondary endpoint data including novel digitally-enabled endpoints and connected medical devices and sensors at both the trial site and patient’s home. It also supports services for virtual visits including direct-to-patient delivery of medicines, telehealth, remote patient monitoring and human biological sample tracking. Patient interaction is available through an easy-to-use, engaging patient app available in more than 40 countries and 80 languages. Site interaction is available through a single-sign-on portal.

Evinova study design and planning: Uses AI and machine learning algorithms to aide clinical development and operations teams to design the optimal study considering critical design variables. Teams can design their study, get automatic costings and assess operational feasibility based on actual data from that indication at a country and site level. They can view historic data and forecast future trends. The module also contains models to estimate the study’s carbon footprint and impact on patient experience. Teams can accelerate decision-making through collaboration and scenario comparison capabilities.

Evinova portfolio management: Supports clinical programme and trial management, reporting and governance through transparent real-time insights and predictive analytics. It provides a complete picture of the portfolio across all phases and allows for tracking of clinical programmes and trials at global, regional, country and site level. It uses predictive algorithms to provide future key milestones, enabling study leaders to understand deviations from plans and supporting appropriate intervention.

Digital health

The application of digital health technologies is seen as a solution to reduce healthcare costs, while also helping to improve patient experience and outcomes​. Starting from around 6% of GDP in 2006-10, the combined public health and long-term care expenditure for OECD countries is projected to reach at least 9.5% in 2060. In BRIICS countries, spending ratios will also increase significantly, reaching around 10% of GDP by 2060 unless cost-containment policies are implemented.¹ Based on 2018 healthcare spend information, McKinsey estimates that digital health interventions alone have the potential to save the US healthcare system nearly $500bn if fully adopted.²

Digital health is a large (+$900bn by 2032) and growing (13.6% CAGR 2022-2032) market. The market for R&D digital health and care delivery with remote patient monitoring, together make up approximately 60% of the total digital health market³. The remaining 40% consists of screening and diagnostics, wellness and disease prevention, supply of therapies and digital pharmacies.

Digital health technology and clinical research

A significant part of the cost and time of the drug development process is in the clinical trials, rather than designing molecules. However, they are vital to the drug development and approval process and critical in enabling access to innovative medicines. Studies estimate that it now costs up to $2bn to bring a new drug to market⁴ and according to one study the average length of time from the start of clinical testing to approval is 7.1 years.⁵ Across the industry, almost 80% of clinical trials fail to meet recruiting timelines⁶ and only 3-5% of eligible cancer patients join a clinical trial.⁷ Many groups, including marginalised racial and ethnic groups, women, and other populations are underrepresented in clinical trials.⁸

A recent AstraZeneca article published in Nature Medicine, lead author Cristina Duran, demonstrated that the implementation of digital health technology in clinical trials can improve the patient experience with accelerated timelines and reduced costs.⁹

AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development, and commercialisation of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases, and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology. Based in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca operates in over 100 countries and its innovative medicines are used by millions of patients worldwide. Please visit astrazeneca.com and follow the Company on Social Media @AstraZeneca.

Evinova

Evinova is a health-tech business, accelerating the delivery of better health outcomes by propelling the life sciences sector forward in digital health, from the inside. Through our application of science-based expertise, evidence-led rigour, and human experience-driven insight, our digital solutions are deliberately designed so that everyone can reach better health outcomes together. Evinova is a health-tech business within the AstraZeneca Group.

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References

1. OECD. What future for health spending? Available at: https://www.oecd.org/economy/health-spending.pdf. Accessed November 2023.
2. McKinsey & Company. Healthtech in the fast lane: What is fueling investor excitement? Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/life-sciences/our-insights/healthtech-in-the-fast-lane-what-is-fueling-investor-excitement. Accessed November 2023.
3. Precedence Research​. Digital Health Market (By Component: Software, Hardware, and Services; By Technology: Telehealthcare [Telehealth and Telecare], mHealth [Apps and Wearables], Digital Health Systems [E-prescribing Systems and Electronic Health Records], and Health Analytics) - Global Market Size, Trends Analysis, Segment Forecasts, Regional Outlook 2023 – 2032. Available at: https://www.precedenceresearch.com/digital-health-market. Accessed November 2023.
4. Deloitte. Deloitte pharma study: Drop-off in returns on R&D investments. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/press-releases/articles/deloitte-pharma-study-drop-off-in-returns-on-r-and-d-investments-sharp-decline-in-peak-sales-per-asset.html. Accessed November 2023.
5. Deloitte. Deloitte pharma study: Drop-off in returns on R&D investments. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/press-releases/articles/deloitte-pharma-study-drop-off-in-returns-on-r-and-d-investments-sharp-decline-in-peak-sales-per-asset.html. Accessed November 2023.
6. Clinical Trials Arena. Clinical trial delays: America’s patient recruitment dilemma. Available at: https://www.clinicaltrialsarena.com/features/featureclinical-trial-patient-recruitment/. Accessed November 2023.
7. Baquet, C.R., Commiskey, P., Daniel Mullins, C., Mishra, S.I., Recruitment and participation in clinical trials: socio-demographic, rural/urban, and health care access predictors. Cancer Detect Prev. 2006;30(1):24-33. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3276312/. Accessed November 2023.
8. Schwartz, A.L, Aslan, M., Morris, A.M., Halpern, S.D., Why diverse clinical trial participation matters. N Engl J Med 2023; 388:1252-1254. Available at: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2215609#article_references. Accessed November 2023.
9. Durán, C.O., Bonam, M., Björk, E. et al. Implementation of digital health technology in clinical trials: the 6R framework. Nat Med (2023). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02489-z. Accessed November 2023.

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