Aetion and Cegedim Health Data announce new partnership to power real-world evidence research in Europe

Collaboration enables use of clinical data to address critical treatment questions as biopharma and regulators respond and adapt to COVID-19

July 8th, 2020 - Today Aetion and Cegedim Health Data announced a new partnership to integrate Cegedim’s THIN^® European real world data (RWD) into Aetion Evidence Platform® (AEP). AEP analyses data from the real world, including claims, electronic health records, registries, and clinical trial data to produce transparent, rapid, and scientifically-validated real world evidence (RWE) on the safety, effectiveness, and value of medical interventions.

This new collaboration with Cegedim Health Data will enable Aetion’s clients, including top biopharma companies, leading payers, and regulatory agencies to employ leading trans-Atlantic RWD to unlock essential insights about treatments. Cegedim’s THIN database — which stands for The Health Improvement Network — includes fully anonymized electronic health records from France, UK, Spain, Belgium and Romania, and provides detail on diagnoses, treatments, clinical outcomes and interventions. The data provides a robust view of treatment use and outcomes — making it a particularly valuable data source for answering COVID-19 treatment questions. When analyzed in Aetion’s platform, THIN data can be transformed into evidence to inform clinical trial planning, regulatory submissions, and value assessment decisions.

Carolyn Magill, CEO, Aetion, comments: “Over the last few months, COVID-19 has changed the drug development landscape, as leading biopharma companies, regulators, and health technology assessment bodies (HTAs) alike look to real world data to urgently answer questions on treatment utilization, safety, and effectiveness. Through this partnership with Cegedim, our aim is to help global biopharma companies quickly generate decision-grade real-world evidence by expanding our data sources and capabilities in the EU.”

Gilles Paubert, Global Head, Cegedim Health Data, adds: “Cegedim is committed to enabling advancements in patient outcomes and expanding its involvement in partnerships to ensure that longitudinal and representative RWD is accessible to all those who require it. The clinically rich data that we capture through THIN, which has a history dating back to 1994, will help clients using Aetion’s platform explore the nuance of each particular dataset, be it therapeutic area-specific or region-specific, to reveal critical insights needed to bring a new drug to market and deliver efficacious treatments to patients faster.”

Aetion partners with the world's leading real-world data providers to enable streamlined access to data for analysis in its platform. This partnership helps it expand its global footprint and serve clients conducting EU-focused research.

Global regulatory agencies and HTAs are increasingly adopting RWE, especially as these groups work to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) plans to incorporate real world data to complement evidence from clinical trials and to help streamline regulatory and decision-making processes for COVID-19 vaccine development and authorisation. Many European HTAs already use RWE for value assessments, and a number of others, including UK’s NICE, Germany's IQWiG, Belgium’s INAMI/RIZIV have committed to expanding its use in their assessments this year.