Sensyne Health and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust sign Strategic Research Agreement

Sensyne Health and Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

sign Strategic Research Agreement

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

Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust receives equity stake in Sensyne Health plc and will receive IT research funding and a share of revenues

Oxford, U.K. 25 November 2020: Sensyne Health plc (LSE: SENS) (“Sensyne” or the “Company” or the “Group”), the UK Clinical AI company, today announces that it has signed a five year non-exclusive Strategic Research Agreement (SRA) with Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (“Hampshire Hospitals” or “The Trust”). The agreement will enable the ethical application of clinical AI research to improve patient care and accelerate research into new medicines.

The Hampshire Hospitals dataset covers 500,000 unique patient records, with 200,000 annual hospital admissions from a patient population of approximately 570,000 people. The new SRA with the Trust brings the combined total of anonymised data available for analysis by Sensyne to 6.1 million patients.  The Hampshire Hospitals dataset includes oncology data that will enable Sensyne to build on its existing research into rare cancers.

Hampshire Hospitals provides hospital services to the populations of Hampshire and parts of West Berkshire. The Trust has around 6,000 staff delivering a full range of district hospital services in a variety of locations; most acute services are provided from its two larger hospitals, Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital and the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.  Hampshire Hospitals also delivers planned services, including surgery, elderly rehabilitation and maternity care from Andover War Memorial Hospital. The Trust offers a range of specialist services to regional and national populations including surgical treatment for Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (a rare abdominal cancer), liver and colorectal cancer surgery, and intraoperative radiotherapy for breast cancer. Hampshire Hospitals is the network host for a regional haemophilia service that serves a wide population across Hampshire, Dorset, Sussex and Wiltshire.

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 Hampshire Hospitals beforehand and the provision of the data will operate under an agreed Data Processing Protocol (“DPP”) under Hampshire Hospitals ethical oversight. 

The Trust will receive 1,428,571 ordinary shares in Sensyne Health plc representing 1.11% of the existing issued share capital of Sensyne. This brings the total share ownership held by NHS Trusts in Sensyne to 12.6% (as enlarged by the expected issue of shares to Hampshire Hospitals, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust). Hampshire Hospitals 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. The Trust will receive a royalty on revenues that are generated by Sensyne from the research undertaken under the SRA. The financial return Hampshire Hospitals receives from Sensyne will be reinvested back into the NHS to fund patient care. The Trust 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.

Hampshire Hospitals 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, George Eliot NHS Trusts, Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust^[1].

Shirlene Oh, Director Strategy of Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:

“We are delighted to be joining other NHS Trusts in signing a strategic research agreement with Sensyne Health. This will allow us to ensure that our staff and patients are able to take advantage of the very latest developments in medical technology and treatment. We very much look forward to working together over the next five years.”

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

“We are very pleased to be working alongside Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust which now brings our overall anonymised data set to over 6.1 million patients and thereby helps us to broaden our research. Importantly, our agreement with Hampshire Hospitals and their oncology expertise now allows us to build on our capabilities in researching rarer forms of cancer.  Following the recent achievement of our original patient data goal we’ll continue to use our resources efficiently, to add data consistent with our strategy of providing an unparalleled research resource for the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.”

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