Precisia Life Sciences launched to provide new intelligence for targeted medicine design
New approaches to developing and deploying medicines and health technologies, to better meet the real-world needs of people they are intended for, could soon become reality with the help of a new business that is creating insights not previously available.
Precisia Life Sciences has today been formally launched by UK-headquartered healthcare technology provider C2-Ai. Precisia is already in discussion with medicines developers, to create new partnerships with healthcare providers and to explore the potential to help develop more inclusive medicines strategies based on a new understanding of clinical risks in populations and under-served groups of patients.
Precisia will provide detailed understanding of patient risks in a population, the complexities that create that risk, and which life science approaches and medicines are most likely to prove effective for those patients to address their needs and improve outcomes, based on data that is routinely collected.
Dr Sheuli Porkess, Chief Medical Officer and Business Unit Director for Precisia Life Sciences, and former director of research, medicine and innovation at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, said: “We have an opportunity to transform the established business model in life sciences, by prioritising patients at greatest risk and so in need of life sciences innovation. Medicines are traditionally developed for an ‘average’ patient. But there is no ‘average’ patient. We want to help the life sciences sector work with healthcare systems with sophisticated insights that they haven’t had before, so they can develop and deploy medicines that will work across diverse patient needs that exist in the real-world.”
Precisia aims to help to make better use of existing and new medicines, and to help target research priorities based on unmet medical need within populations. In part this will be achieved through clinical risk maps – which will help researchers to visualise population risks, modernise how they design clinical trials, and help to inform recruitment strategies, so that patients involved in research initiatives better reflect those who will use medicines.
The underpinning technology behind Precisia’s approach is already trusted in the NHS and around the world, where it is being used to prioritise waiting lists, reduce avoidable harm and enhance patient safety. Developed by C2-Ai, the system provides insights based on sophisticated algorithms developed around 450 million patient episodes from 46 countries, and more than a decade of real-world deployment. It has been recognised in peer-reviewed research and industry awards for its ability to support an accurate understanding of risk of mortality and harm for patients and required preventative action.
Carolyn Heaney, Director of Life Science Partnerships for Precisia Life Sciences, who has held leadership positions within and outside government for more than 20 years, including the UK Department of Health and the ABPI, said: “The life sciences sector hasn’t looked at how medicines can be delivered in this way before. It now has a new opportunity to deliver medicines based on more than numbers and concentrations of incidence of illness, but instead on combined risk factors that can reveal much more about how unmet need can be addressed.
“This intelligence has the potential to be most effective when industry and healthcare systems collaborate to create better cases for medicines that can reduce burdens faced by patients and providers. I look forward to helping to form partnerships that will ultimately create meaningful impact for the people in greatest need, just as we are already seeing from C2-Ai’s healthcare customers around the world.”
