Sensyne Health and Milton Keynes University Hospital sign Strategic Research Agreement

New non-exclusive agreement enables the ethical application of clinical artificial intelligence research on anonymised patient data to improve patient care and accelerate research into new medicines

Milton Keynes University Hospital receives equity stake in Sensyne Health plc and will receive IT research funding and a share of revenues 

Oxford, U.K. 26 October 2020: Sensyne Health plc (LSE: SENS) (“Sensyne” or the “Company” or the “Group”), the UK Clinical AI company, today announces it has signed a five year non-exclusive Strategic Research Agreement (SRA) with Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (MKUH).  The agreement will enable the ethical application of clinical AI research to improve patient care and accelerate research into new medicines.

Milton Keynes NHS Foundation Trust has around 550 beds, including day acute and neonatal beds and employs around 3,500 staff, providing a full range of acute hospital services and an increasing number of specialist services to the growing population of Milton Keynes and surrounding areas. All in-patient services and most outpatient services are provided on the main hospital site. The Trust is organised into four clinical divisions (medicine, surgery, women and children and core clinical) and a number of corporate directorates

The dataset covers 650,000 unique patient records, with 55,000 annual hospital admissions from a patient population of approximately 350,000 people. The new SRA with MKUH brings the combined total of anonymised data available for analysis by Sensyne to 4.5 million patients.

Research will be undertaken to the highest standards of information governance and data security in accordance with NHS principles, the UK Government Code of Practice and data protection legislation. All data supplied to Sensyne will be anonymised by MKUH beforehand and the provision of the data will operate under an agreed Data Processing Protocol (“DPP”) under MKUH ethical oversight.  MKUH patient data sits securely in a Datawarehouse which will facilitate efficient data processing with Sensyne and enable immediate implementation.

MKUH will receive 1,428,571 ordinary shares in Sensyne Health plc representing 1.1% of the existing issued share capital of Sensyne. This brings the total share ownership held by NHS Trusts in Sensyne to 10.86%.  MKUH will also receive from Sensyne an investment of up to £250,000 per year over the 5-year term of the contract for specific investments in information technology to enable the curation and analysis of data under the SRA. MKUH will also receive a royalty on revenues that are generated by Sensyne from the research undertaken under the SRA.  The financial return MKUH receives from Sensyne will be reinvested back into the NHS to fund patient care. MKUH has entered into a lock-up agreement whereby it has agreed not to dispose of any shares for a period of two years from the date the shares are issued

MKUH joins existing SRAs the Company has in place with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Wye Valley and George Eliot NHS Trusts[1].

Lord (Paul) Drayson PhD, CEO of Sensyne Health, said:

“We are delighted to be working with Milton Keynes in using anonymised patient data to improve patient care and accelerate the development of new medicines. SRAs are a fundamental part of Sensyne’s unique model - giving NHS Trusts equity, funding and the ability to share in revenues.  Growing our access to anonymised patient data is key to our strategy.  This new non-exclusive SRA moves us closer to our target of over 5 million unique patient records in the current financial year.”

The issue of new ordinary shares in Sensyne Health to the Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust remains subject to receipt of a s593 valuation report by the Company and a further announcement will be made in due course once the shares have been issued and allotted.

[1]The SRAs with George Eliot & Wye Valley remain subject to NHSEngland approval prior to final closing and issue of shares in Sensyne.