IQVIA will collaborate with Genomics England on a platform connecting clinical results and deidentified genomics data, aimed at generating evidence for drug research and personalized medicine.
Through IQVIA’s E360 platform, authorized academic and commercial researchers will be able to access Genomics England’s patient-consented data to create custom clinical-genomic datasets and analyze genetic links to observable traits. The project is focusing on patients with rare diseases and their families, as well as patients with common cancers.
The partnership was announced separately from a speech by U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, who unveiled a new long-term cancer strategy for the NHS, focused on improving early diagnosis.
“Half of us will be diagnosed with cancer. All of us know someone who has been,” May said in a speech to her Conservative party conference. “Survival rates are increasing, but we are lagging behind other countries.”
The strategy aims to increase early detection rates from 50% to 75% over the next 10 years, she said, by lowering screening ages for bowel cancers as well as building rapid diagnostic centers across the country.
Genomics England is a company owned by the Department of Health and Social Care, set up with the goal of sequencing 100,000 whole genomes from NHS patients and their families.
Its partnerships with IQVIA hopes to support a range of research including genomic association studies, comparative efficacy and safety trials, and burden-of-illness and discovery analytics.
Life sciences companies that use IQVIA’s research will be able to provide genomic testing to patients in parallel or as part of their clinical programs, the companies said.