PHT Provides Mobile Engagement Apps for Increased Patient Retention in Clinical Trials
Trending now: Patient-focused mobile apps designed to increase patient engagement and protocol compliance can help reduce participant dropout rate.
PHT is expanding its suite of patient-centric apps for improved clinical research with the availability of the Patient Connect Engagement Suite of apps, an integrated set of patient tools now available as part of the PHT electronic clinical outcome assessment (eCOA) system.
The Patient Connect Suite helps increase protocol compliance and prevent patient dropouts by improving the patients’ experience in clinical research. Participation in a study is easier, more engaging, and more convenient with this educational and supportive app that can include SMS messaging and access to the patient’s own study data via the StudyWorks Patient Portal.
Valuable features and communications tools include: Trial-specific FAQs, visit guides, instruction manuals and training; secure patient portal to review data provided and progress dashboard; and survey tool for collecting feedback, etc.
“The development of the Engagement Suite exemplifies the continued innovation at PHT to improve the patient experience during a clinical trial," says Sheila Rocchio, PHT VP of marketing and corporate strategy. “PHT is adding more services and capabilities trial sponsors are requesting to make it easier and more convenient for patients to participate in studies."
BIOVIA Launches Solution for Biotherapeutic Candidates
BIOVIA, formerly Accelrys, has launched BIOVIA Biologics, a solution that supports the discovery, optimization, 
and development of biotherapeutic candidates. BIOVIA Biologics offers an integrated, end-to-end data management and workflow for biologics, from lead identification and discovery analytics to protein optimization and engineering, protein production, process development, and regulatory compliance.
The system enables scientists to annotate and analyze high-volume candidate antibody sequences and associated data?accelerating innovation, improving process efficiency and potentially reducing late-stage failures in biologics development. It simplifies the application landscape, improves collaboration, and helps researchers better understand the biological pathways of disease at the molecular level.
“Biotherapeutics enable more targeted therapies, better diagnostics, and improved outcomes for patients," says Tim Moran, director of life science research, Dassault Systèmes BIOVIA. “They also bring two challenging common denominators: a biological origin and structural complexity. For this reason, biopharmaceutical R&D organizations need unified tools and techniques to drive process efficiency and demonstrate safety, efficacy and regulatory compliance of biologics-based therapies."
Symphony Health Solutions Announces Symphony HealthCloud
Symphony Health Solutions has introduced Symphony HealthCloud, a cloud-based storage and 
analytics solution using the latest technology to streamline data management and insight generation within the pharmaceutical market. Enabling an access to pharmaceutical data and an open, collaborative operating model, Symphony HealthCloud offers a scalable, flexible, secure platform that can be tailored to client needs and delivers significantly increased speed to insight.
“Putting all of these resources in the cloud reduces the barriers that have traditionally stood in the way of quickly producing insights that drive action and organizational success," says Don Otterbein, senior VP, product management and marketing.
PhRMA Foundation Launches New Web Platform to Support Researchers
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) Foundation has launched its new platform, phrmafoundation.org, which features new resources on its competitive research grants and fellowships for young scientists in the most challenging areas of drug discovery.
The foundation awards more than $3.3 million per year in annual grants to emerging researchers with support from PhRMA’s member companies. Recent grants have focused on topics such as comparative effectiveness, adherence improvement and health outcomes. More than 170 research articles are housed on the new website, demonstrating the substantial research efforts of past award recipients.
“By enhancing the accessibility of our grants and fellowships, we hope to foster the careers of young scientists who are exploring a variety of challenging disciplines, such as cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s and cancer," says Eileen Cannon, executive director of the Foundation. “The PhRMA Foundation is committed to investing in people, programs and partnerships to advance scientific research that will ultimately improve patient care and treatment options."
Appistry Launches Cloud-Based System for Translational Research
Appistry has launched a cloud-based system for conducting patient-centered translational research. Appistry CloudDx Translational meets a critical need in clinical research centers: centralizing and coordinating data, processes, and communication in order to leverage institutional expertise and deliver high-quality results to patients and the research community.
The system enables clinical research centers engaged in the study of human disease to build a personalized medicine framework for organizing research activities. CloudDx Translational integrates the various tasks needed to perform translational research, provides expert systems to facilitate the work of project team members, and ensures that valuable data and insights are searchable and shareable to inform hypothesis generation and decision-making, while holding patient identifiable information secure in accordance with ethical practices of human-subject research.
CloudDx Translational extends Appistry’s CloudDx product line, launched in June 2014. The original Appistry CloudDx, now renamed CloudDx Clinical, is a cloud service that supports delivery of NGS-based testing by healthcare organizations.
“Both CloudDx solutions have at their core a keen understanding of the complex workflows that must be managed and facilitated to put patients at the center of care, whether it be a research project or a genomic test," says Kevin Haar, CEO of Appistry.
Campbell Alliance Launches Services for Product Launches
Campbell Alliance, the consulting arm of inVentiv Health, has formed the Campbell Alliance Launch Suite, an integrated offering designed to bring products to market primed for success. The suite pairs strategic insights and tools, informed by planning launches for almost 60% of new U.S. molecular entities and more than 500 global launch engagements. The scalable offering allows clients to tap into experts who have managed launches across a wide range of product types, geographic markets and therapeutic areas.
“With the strategic recommendations from our launch and subject matter experts, we help clients design and assess their overall launch strategy, track and gauge their progress to launch and achieve critical outcomes," says Rohit Sood, head of global launch excellence at Campbell Alliance. “Launches are a key milestone in the success of an asset, and we recognize that the scope of each launch varies by asset and market."
Alliance Enables Biopharma Companies to Securely Track Competition
Exostar and Code-N are connecting Code-N’s cloud-based solutions to Exostar’s Life Sciences Identity Hub.
By joining Exostar’s partner program as an application partner, Code-N ensures its Competitive Profiler, Drug Repurposing, and Safety solutions can be securely accessed by organizations.
Exostar’s life-sciences and healthcare community currently includes almost 15,000 users and 700 organizations, as well as seven federated organizations and more than 20 federated applications.(PV)
————————————-
Updates
Certara is launching version 8.0 of its D360 R&D big data platform for the biopharmaceutical industry. D360 provides scientific data integration, access, analysis, and visualization capabilities for early discovery through to the preclinical and clinical phases of drug development. The new version includes new tools for collaboration within an organization and across external partners and improved performance and usability.
Clinovo has launched the latest version of its electronic data capture (EDC) system ClinCapture. The new ClinCapture Builder is a do-it-yourself portal that enables users to fully create, deploy and manage studies on their own, from one central location. Because ClinCapture is cloud-based, users can manage one or several clinical trials from anywhere, at any time.
iWorx Systems has introduced Serial Interface Software that enables experiment builder platforms to communicate with iWorx LabScribe v3 Recording and Analysis Software. This release allows experiment builder platforms, including DirectRT, EPrime, OpenSesame, PsychoPy and others, to send messages to LabScribe software when particular events occur, such as when an image is displayed or video is played.
biopharmaceutical industry. D360 provides scientific data integration, access, analysis, and visualization capabilities for early discovery through to the preclinical and clinical phases of drug development. The new version includes new tools for collaboration within an organization and across external partners and improved performance and usability.
Clinovo has launched the latest version of its electronic data capture (EDC) system ClinCapture. The new ClinCapture Builder is a do-it-yourself portal that enables users to fully create, deploy and manage studies on their own, from one central location. Because ClinCapture is cloud-based, users can manage one or several clinical trials from anywhere, at any time.
iWorx Systems has introduced Serial Interface Software that enables experiment builder platforms to communicate with iWorx LabScribe v3 Recording and Analysis Software. This release allows experiment builder platforms, including DirectRT, EPrime, OpenSesame, PsychoPy and others, to send messages to LabScribe software when particular events occur, such as when an image is displayed or video is played.
—————————————————-
PhRMA Awards in Excellence
The Award in Excellence program, now in its 15th year, honors former Foundation grant recipients for outstanding career achievements. These awards are given to scientists who received a Foundation grant at the outset of their careers in a discipline important to the research-based pharmaceutical industry.
2014 Winners include:
Terrence F. Blaschke, M.D. — 2014 Award in Excellence in Clinical Pharmacology;
Dr. Blaschke is Senior Program Officer, Global Health Discovery and Translational Sciences at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Nancy R. Zahniser, Ph.D.— 2014 Award in Excellence in Pharmacology/Toxicology;
Dr. Zahniser is Professor of Pharmacology, University of Colorado, School of Medicine
Teruna J. Siahaan, Ph.D. — 2014 Award in Excellence in Pharmaceutics;
Dr. Siahaan is a Professor and Associate Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, The University of Kansas
Keep current on the latest tools of the trade with PharmaVOICE.
