AstraZeneca has turned to data giant Oracle as the U.K.-based Big Pharma works on one of the eternal problems of drug development—improving patient recruitment.
A non-binding agreement will see the partners “explore selected use cases that could improve clinical-trial efficiency and success by leveraging modern applications and AI,” according to an Oct. 20 release.
In practice, this could help care teams when it comes to identifying eligible patients earlier in the trial process. Initial disease areas being considered for the collaboration range from oncology and rare diseases to cardiovascular, renal and metabolic indications, as well as respiratory and immunology.
“Too many patients are diagnosed late or face a long journey to get the care they need,” AstraZeneca’s Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer Anne-Claire Gerbaldi said in the release.
“Bringing together the unique capabilities of Oracle and AstraZeneca, we believe we can support smarter clinical trials, strengthen safety monitoring, and help ensure patients are diagnosed sooner and receive the right care,” Gerbaldi added.
The Big Pharma has been at the forefront of the industry’s integration across its processes, including developing its own open-source generative AI framework, dubbed Reinvent, which has halved the time needed to identify molecular structures that could become potential new medicines.
The company has also continued to use its algorithm platform—known as quantitative continuous scoring—to identify patients most likely to respond to treatment. When it comes to manufacturing, AstraZeneca has an ambition for its AI Development Agent to ultimately halve chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) development time.
So far this year, the drugmaker has penned pacts with Owkin to leverage its autonomous “AI Scientist” platform, as well as harnessing Evinova’s AI-native platform in an effort to speed up clinical development.
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot said this morning’s “unique collaboration” with Oracle “brings leaders in healthcare and AI together at a global scale to accelerate the journey from the discovery of medicine to patient care.”
“Combining AstraZeneca's world-class science with Oracle's deep data and technology expertise, we can help clinicians identify patients sooner, optimize clinical trials and generate evidence continuously across the lifecycle of a medicine,” Soriot added.
Oracle CEO Mike Sicilia pointed out that “some of the most important opportunities for AI are in healthcare, where better use of data can help turn scientific innovation into better outcomes for patients.”
“By bringing AstraZeneca's scientific expertise together with Oracle's data, cloud, AI and healthcare capabilities, we have an opportunity to help accelerate research, connect more patients to clinical trials, and ultimately bring relevant insights into care faster,” Sicilia added.
Oracle kicked off the year by launching its Oracle Life Sciences AI Data Platform, which it touted as using generative AI, agentic reasoning and customizable AI agents to help pharmaceutical, medical device and research organizations accelerate drug development, clinical trials, safety monitoring and commercialization efforts.