This week, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced the launch of Evinova, a health technology business focused on bringing digital health solutions already in use globally by the pharma company to clinical research organisations (CROs), trial sponsors and care teams, and patients.

Why it's Notable:

Evinova will use established digital solutions to streamline clinical trial design and delivery, while also exploring digital remote patient monitoring and therapeutics. The comprehensive suite of existing solutions include Evinova’s unified trial solution which facilitates collection of various data types at both trial sites and from patients' homes, while also supporting virtual visits, direct-to-patient medicine delivery, telehealth, remote monitoring and sample tracking. It is already available in 40 countries and 80 languages. 

Other offerings include a study design and planning tool that uses AI and machine-learning algorithms to assist teams in the design of their studies, and a portfolio management tool which provides reporting and governance with real-time insights and predictive algorithms. This provides researchers with a complete picture of the portfolio across all phases, allowing for tracking of clinical programs and trials at the global, regional, country and site level, and provides insights into any deviations from plans.

Industry Implications:

The primary objective of Evinova is to streamline the development of new medicines by reducing both time and costs, while simultaneously bringing healthcare closer to patients and alleviating the strain on health systems. AstraZeneca emphasised that the initial key collaborations with clinical research organisations Parexel and Fortrea will facilitate the integration of Evinova's digital-health solutions into their extensive customer base, helping to broaden Evinova’s customer reach. Furthermore, it was announced that Accenture and Amazon Web Services will be partnering to boost the global traction of Evinova’s products.

There is a need for an overhaul in drug development processes, with recent research highlighting substantial declines in projected ROI for R&D activities in pharmaceutical companies. Digital technologies hold great potential to improve efficiency in clinical trials. According to Astrazeneca CEO, Pascal Soriot,  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. This is aligned with an anticipated rise in expenditure on AI and machine learning in healthcare companies next year.