By Clinical Research Team  

October 30, 2024| IQVIA introduces IQVIA AI Assistant; DHL Express and Thermo Fisher Scientific join forces to drive more sustainable clinical research services; Withings Health Solutions announces a first-of-its-kind cellular blood pressure monitor; and more. 

IQVIA introduced IQVIA AI Assistant, a generative AI technology that enables a step-change enhancement in how life science customers receive timely insights. IQVIA AI Assistant is a user-friendly, conversational text interface that provides immediate and intuitive analytic insights. The IQVIA AI Assistant is built upon IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI, an AI foundation that IQVIA has been investing in for more than a decade. IQVIA Healthcare-grade AI combines high-quality healthcare data with extensive privacy safeguards. Press release. 

DHL Express and Thermo Fisher Scientific joined forces to drive more sustainable clinical research services for the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Thermo Fisher will use DHL Express’ GoGreen Plus service and invest in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a drop-in fuel that can be used in most conventional aircraft, to reduce emissions from air transportation. The collaboration enables Thermo Fisher—and its customers—to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with global clinical research air shipping logistics by up to 80% while maintaining rapid shipping timelines, sample chain of custody and quality. It reflects Thermo Fisher’s commitment to sustainability and enhances the PPD clinical research business’ leadership in environmental innovation, which also includes a variety of initiatives such as renewable energy for powering clinical trial sites, and labs. Press release. 

Boomi announced the launch of a new specialized connector designed to streamline integration between third-party systems and the Veeva Vault platform. This expands Boomi’s collaboration with Veeva Systems to bring together content and data for mutual customers. The Boomi connector for Veeva Vault simplifies the connectivity of Veeva applications—from commercial to R&D—by leveraging the latest Vault APIs for comprehensive data access. By enabling users to avoid manual, time-consuming, and error-prone coding projects, the connector streamlines the integration process and drives efficiency gains. Press release. 

Withings Health Solutions announced BPM Pro 2, a first-of-its-kind cellular blood pressure monitor that collects highly precise measurements while also introduces a new feature that enriches the data with context from patients’ daily lives. The Patient Insights feature streamlines clinical workflows by gathering critical information through the device, such as symptoms and medication adherence, which reduces clinical workload and frees up care teams to dedicate time to patients with the highest need. BPM Pro 2 measures heart rate and blood pressure. It comes with the future capability to take a 1-lead ECG to detect atrial fibrillation (following FDA Clearance). The device is portable, compact and designed to be user-friendly. Press release. 

Advarra announced the milestone of vetting more than 1,500 sites for its Gene Therapy Ready (GTR) site network. Advarra has registered more CGT-ready sites than all other institutional biosafety committee (IBC) review providers combined to create the largest CGT site network in clinical research. With its broad geographic span, Advarra can deliver NIH-compliant IBC oversight for CGT trials globally. In addition to providing critical safety oversight of CGT trials, Advarra's GTR site network enables sponsors and CROs to start trials faster. Press release. 

Dovetail Genomics launched its Certified Service Provider program. This program provides core labs the tools and support to offer their own portfolio of Hi-C services, accelerating access to a variety of research and clinical applications. In addition to training and support, Dovetail will be offering kitted solutions at competitive pricing intended to drive volume. Press release. 

CluePoints launched its latest application, Medical & Safety Review (MSR). The tool simplifies and streamlines the medical analysis of study data through user-friendly dashboards, data manipulation and cleaning, query management, and full transparency over the data history. This improves efficiency and communication in medical oversight, as well as elevates patient safety. Other benefits include enhanced medical review efficiency and reduced human errors via automated checks; reduced time spent by clinical and data management teams in reviewing data; improved collaboration with integrated review workflows across departments; and more. Press release. 

Phesi launched a self-service Investigator Site Profile solution designed to eliminate the non-active and non-enrolling investigator sites that development programs are typically burdened with. Investigator Site Profile leverages data from Phesi’s AI-powered Trial Accelerator platform, including records from 600,000 investigator sites in 195 countries. Users of the solution can access a detailed profile of investigator sites to select the best locations for the design of their study. Each profile contains the following data: investigator site clinical experience and relevance to indication under study; historical clinical trial capacity and current research workload at each investigator site, including competitor trials; profile of the investigator’s medical expertise based on data derived from his/her involvement in clinical research and clinical development; and more. Press release. 

Genialis announced the commercial availability of Genialis krasID, the first biomarker algorithm that can predict patient response and clinical benefit to KRAS inhibitors (KRASi) across tissue histology and mutation type. Genialis krasID can help guide drug development from early preclinical phases (e.g., compound/MOA differentiation and selection), to clinical trials (e.g., patient selection for clinical trials and identification of combination therapies), to market access and clinical care (e.g., development of CDx and as a clinical decision tool). Genialis krasID uses machine learning (AI/ML) to model dozens of biological processes from the gene expression of patient-derived tumors, providing incomparably more information and predictive power than traditional mutation-based diagnostics. Press release.