GLASGOW, UK - Mar 29, 2017 - ProductLife Group (PLG), which specialises in helping life sciences companies stay ahead of the changing R&D landscape, has launched PLG inVolv™, a powerful artificial-intelligence-based social media listening solution to help the industry meet its pharmacovigilance obligations.

As the latest addition to ProductLife Group’s leading pharmacovigilance and risk management services offerings and designed to complement rather than replace existing product vigilance and clinical safety systems, this new and innovative solution is the result of an exclusive collaboration with Volv Partners, a specialist in artificial-intelligence-based social media listening technology for life sciences and medical markets.

A major strength is the tool’s rapid impact and sharp focus. PLG inVolv is easy to deploy as either a hosted, software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription or a complete managed service, and it’s programmed to learn what to look out for, so time and budget don’t get lost in an analysis of irrelevant social noise. “PLG inVolv makes sophisticated social listening easy and convenient by using preloaded algorithms and machine-learning technology that enables high-targeting analytics of Web and social media activity,” said Adam Sherlock, CEO of ProductLife Group. “In this way, it cost-efficiently meets the latest regulatory requirements around the de-risking of product use and around increases in patient centricity.”

The solution’s accuracy, which begins at more than 80% even before the system has learned what to look out for and what to discard, has been robustly tested: repeated scans of digital channels consistently find the same mentions.

Organisations ranging from those involved in pharma, medical devices, veterinary drugs and cosmetics can use PLG inVolv to:

• Improve the sensitivity and focus of existing safety and vigilance systems
• Fulfil growing regulatory demands around Web and social channel monitoring-and in a transparent way that keeps within strict privacy guidelines
• Tap into the large volumes and wealth of real-world feedback that remain otherwise unrecorded and unreported-and in a highly targeted and cost-efficient way
• Strengthen patient relationships, improve levels of trust, and create closer customer connections. PLG inVolv also supports new opportunities to engage with markets via digital channels while respecting strict rules about patient privacy.

PLG inVolv is also very flexible. It can be configured without reprogramming, and its open technology and optimised interface make it easy to integrate with existing regulatory affairs regulatory information management, safety, and pharmacovigilance management platforms such as Oracle Argus and ArisGlobal. “There is no need to discard existing tools: we’ve designed PLG’s inVolv solution to be universally compatible with all of your existing technologies and made listening models to be really simple; you can start your organisational vigilance easily and-importantly-relevantly,” said Volv Partners CEO Christopher Rudolf.

PLG inVolv is a subscription-based SaaS solution that runs in a secure, private cloud. It can be deployed in four main ways as follows.

• ProductLife Group can run it on a company’s behalf, as a complete managed service, by using the insight to report events back to life sciences industry clients-typically, a pharmacovigilance team.
• Life sciences companies or consultancies providing services on behalf of life sciences companies can use the service themselves to perform social listening.
• Life sciences companies can take a hybrid approach by doing some work themselves and leaving other aspects to ProductLife Group, all of it provisioned through the same common social listening platform.
• ProductLife Group, via its medical science or regulatory information management consultancy practices, can perform gap analysis on an existing social media listening system to prompt continuous improvement.

Volv Partners specialises in applying advanced technologies-including sophisticated machine-learning and advanced predictive capabilities-to the latest complex challenges health-care and life sciences organisations face. “The partnership with Volv is an important enabler in our continued mission to keep life sciences clients ahead of regulatory requirements,” Adam said. “This strategic alliance combines Volv’s advanced technology expertise and market experience with ProductLife Group’s rich suite of life sciences solutions and services and a longtime record of supporting this industry through critical change. It’s a powerful match.”