The agreement – financial terms of which were not disclosed – with see Covance work with scientist at Novartis’ research arm – the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) to develop a data warehouse for preclinical and clinical data.
The project will focus on expanding NIBR’s existing data storage architecture, which already houses results from the Swiss drugmakers research projects, into a platform capable of accommodating more results and allowing researchers to access them more easily.
For Covance the main driver for using NIBR’s existing system as a basis is “that it can effectively store both preclinical and clinical data in a single repository,” according to Covance’s chief data officer Dimitris Agrafiotis.
He explained that: “Integrating data across the preclinical and clinical divide is critical for advancing a molecule along the development pipeline and for enabling translational research.”
Specifics of the agreement have not been disclosed, although according to Covance any technology developed will be an important component of its “clinical data integration services” and underpin its “risk-based, centralized and medical monitoring solutions.”
The deal comes weeks after the preclinical trial focused contract research organisation (CRO) teamed up with Fresenius unit Frenova Renal Research on a data focused project.
Like the Novartis agreement, the Frenova deal granted Covance access to a large collection of data, however, the focus was on using the CROs analytical capabilities to design better protocols for studies of chronic kidney disease.