Pharma Improves Care by Sharing Clinical Trial Data

A shift toward increased data sharing between pharma and academia is advancing research that could improve patient care for conditions from diabetes to cancer. Analytics leader SAS is working to provide a secure analytics environment that advances clinical trial data transparency for seven of the top 10 pharma companies. The latest version of SAS® Clinical Trial Data Transparency provides the ability for researchers to analyze patient-level, anonymized clinical trial information from multiple sponsors in a secure, globally accessible environment.

“When patients enter into clinical trials, they believe that their data is being used to the maximum ability to advance health care,” said Dr. Martin J. Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, CEO Roundtable on Cancer. “They don’t want to hear that the data may be sitting on a shelf after its initial purpose. A solution to maximize therapeutic benefit is increased and responsible collaboration - it will take everyone in both academia and industry stepping forward together with data and maximizing their use within an appropriate data sharing model.”

Led by pioneers, including GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim, as well as the independent non-profit initiative, Project Data Sphere, LLC of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, consensus is building to provide greater access to patient-level and pooling data in a multi-sponsor environment that will significantly increase innovation in drug development, while improving clinical trial efficiency. Ultimately, access to aggregated, patient-level clinical data could improve clinical trial outcomes and reduce the number of patients needed for new studies.

“There are many benefits of sharing patient-level data from those who have given their time to take part in clinical trials to further our understanding of medical conditions and their treatment options,” said Sarah Nolan, Medical Statistician at the Department of Biostatistics, University of Liverpool, researching antiepileptic drug and surgical treatments for epilepsy. “With a multi-sponsor platform we only have to submit proposals in a single format to one place and be reviewed by one panel, where in the past multiple requests and panels were required, often with different documentation or different formats required for each proposal, in addition to the added burden of extensive data cleaning and management across different systems.”

Clinical Trial Data Transparency Forums

To move forward, sharing and collaboration are critical. SAS has hosted three Clinical Trial Data Transparency Forums in the US and UK, convening leaders from more than 30 pharmaceutical and research organizations to candidly share views on governance, stewardship and infrastructure, and agree on a framework. For more information, read the executive summary of the most recent SAS Clinical Trial Data Transparency Forum.

“Data can generate new insights and move research faster, and with that new cures for disease and better patient care,” said Matt Gross, Director of the Health Care and Life Sciences Global Practice for SAS. “By collaborating with the industry, SAS is setting the de facto standard for clinical trial data analysis and reporting. No company can go it alone; we’re bringing together the industry to drive consensus around transparency and make this vision a reality.”

SAS will demonstrate its life sciences products in Booth 1323 at the DIA 2014 Annual Meeting in San Diego, June 16-18. Learn more about efforts to increase transparency for clinical trials and read Are You Ready for Clinical Trial Data Transparency?

About SAS® for health analytics

SAS for health analytics encompasses the technologies and skills needed to deliver best-in-class solutions for improving medical care, strengthening financial performance, deepening customer relationships and pursuing medical innovations. For more than three decades, leading life sciences companies such as AstraZeneca, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and PSKW have relied on SAS Analytics for drug discovery, clinical trials, sales and marketing, and manufacturing. Visit SAS® for life sciences for more information.