Sanofi extends its RWD-focused partnership with Evidation
Health metrics firm Evidation has announced it is extending its decade-long collaboration agreement with pharmaceutical firm Sanofi. The partnership will center on building upon their joint real-world data (RWD) initiatives, aimed at co-developing datasets to develop and validate novel measures of health and wellness.
“Real-world evidence is critical to help us better understand the patient’s health and wellness journey outside of traditional healthcare visits,” said Arnaud Robert, executive vice president and chief digital officer of Sanofi. “Through our expanded collaboration with Evidation, we can further our ambition to transform the practice of medicine by connecting more closely with patients and citizens, expanding our geographic capabilities, and increasing diversity to better represent the global population.”
According to Evidation, the collaboration with Sanofi has delivered “groundbreaking” results to date. It has tackled more than 20 studies conducted across 10 therapeutic areas (including diabetes and Type 2 inflammation), reached more than half a million patients, and led to the publication of four studies.
Outsourcing-Pharma spoke with Mikki Nasch, co-founder and head of commercial at Evidation, about the long partnership with Sanofi, and what the two collaborators have planned for this next phase.
OSP: Are there any notable advances or discoveries that happened since you got together?
MN: After working together for almost 10 years, Evidation and Sanofi have conducted 20-plus studies across 10 therapeutic areas, reaching more than 500,000 patients. We are thrilled to build on these successful results as we continue our collaboration with Sanofi.
One notable study examined the impact of digital interventions on increasing flu vaccination among at-risk people with diabetes, which we presented at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes’ annual meeting. We found that personalized messaging for those living with chronic conditions, specifically diabetes, can make them more likely to receive vaccinations. In the study, more than 64% of people in the intervention reported receiving the influenza vaccine, compared to just over 61% in the control arm.
OSP: What are some of the qualities and capabilities Evidation offers that make you an appealing collaborator for a significant industry player like Sanofi?
MN: Evidation measures health in everyday life so we can create a deeper understanding of a patient's experience outside of clinical settings, over time. Smartphones, apps, and wearables (which generate huge amounts of this everyday health and behavior data) open up the possibility that we can create a holistic, longitudinal view of health in real life.
To capture the 99% of health data that occurs outside the clinic, Evidation has built a large, diverse cohort of research participants through the Evidation app. Our community has over 4.5m members, allowing organizations like Sanofi to work across a broad array of disease and therapeutic areas. We are the first company that can help digital health and biopharma companies generate evidence about their treatments and then enable individuals to use that evidence to take actions to manage their health.
Evidation does this while prioritizing patient privacy through a consent-per-use model, where individuals explicitly consent to any third-party use of their data. This approach is unique to the industry and ensures that individuals own and control their personal health information.
OSP: Can you share any additional data about the next phase and the new measures of health and wellness you plan on targeting?
MN: We look forward to building on our important work with Sanofi in the months and years to come. We anticipate working on a number of new research and development projects and are excited to share findings and updates as we have them.
