BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMACY MARKET
Shields Health Solutions | March 17, 2023
Shields Health Solutions (Shields), the premier specialty pharmacy accelerator in the country, announced that it has partnered with Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware, to collaborate in developing a specialty pharmacy program that will provide patients with complex, chronic conditions access to specialized pharmacy services designed to lower costs, expand treatment options, enhance medication management, and improve overall health.
Shields will provide Nemours Children’s Health new support services through its partnership to meet the unique needs of patients with complex chronic conditions. Now, specialty pharmacy liaisons will work with patients on-site in clinics, offices, and pharmacies, among other locations, guiding patients who fill their prescriptions with Nemours Children’s. These liaisons work with teams of experts to assist patients and families with a multitude of tasks, including health insurance prior authorizations or securing financial assistance to help overcome one of the significant barriers to care.
These expanded patient support services, combined with access to recently approved and newly available drugs, will give Nemours’ patients greater availability for onsite treatment options. Shields currently partners with nearly 80 health systems around the country and has helped their patients reduce co-pays, promptly receive medication delivery, often within two days, and improved medication adherence greater than 90 percent on average.
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the largest multistate pediatric health systems in the country and provides award-winning care to more than 38,000 specialty patients. The complete health system includes two free-standing children's hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary, specialty and urgent care practices. US News & World Report ranked Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware among the 10 best children’s hospitals in the Mid-Atlantic region and recognized Nemours Children’s Hospital, Florida for excellence in orthopedics and endocrinology.
“Nemours’ commitment to outstanding care for children with chronic diseases aligns with Shields core mission,” said Stephen Davis, Senior Director of Health System Strategy. “Specialty pharmacy services provide challenges for all patient populations, but pediatric patients have unique needs that require tremendous support. We are proud to provide that support for patients at Nemours Children’s Health and help them achieve the best possible health outcomes.”
“As Nemours Children’s Health works toward creating the healthiest generations of children, it is imperative to address social determinants of health including access to medications that are affordable, said,” said Robert J. Mullen, BS, PharmD, RPh, Vice President, Patient Operations, Delaware Valley, at Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware. “Specialty pharmacy services can cause many challenges for the complex patients that Nemours Children’s cares for on a daily basis. We are proud to be partnering with Shields Health Solutions to help ease the burden for families acquiring prescription medication for their children and in turn achieve better health outcomes.”
About Shields Health Solutions
Shields Health Solutions (Shields) is the premier specialty pharmacy accelerator in the country. The Shields Performance Platform, an integrated set of solutions, services and technology, is intentionally designed to elevate payer and drug access for specialty pharmacies, elevate health outcomes for complex patients, and elevate growth throughout the entire health system. As the foremost experts in the health system specialty pharmacy industry, Shields has a proven track record of success including access to over 80 percent of all limited distribution drugs (LDDs) and most (health insurance) payers in the nation; and a clinical model proven to lower total cost of care by 13%. In partnership with more than 70 health systems across the country through national-scale collaboration, Shields has a vested interest in delivering measurable clinical and financial results for health systems.
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RESEARCH, BUSINESS INSIGHTS
Medidata Solutions | March 13, 2023
Medidata, a leading provider of innovative software solutions for clinical trials that streamline the clinical trial process, reduce time and cost, and accelerate the development of new treatments, recently announced that Allucent, a contract research organization (CRO) that brings innovation to biopharma firms, is expanding the global use of Medidata's Clinical Cloud to enhance its clinical trial operations offering.
This agreement extends Allucent's current usage of Medidata's technology, which includes eCOA, Rave EDC, RTSM, and Rave Imaging, supporting crucial development areas such as rare and orphan indications, oncology and cell and gene therapies. As part of the deal, Allucent's team achieved 100% Rave EDC certification, reinforcing their dedication to quality and providing clients with industry-leading technology.
Allucent is a sponsor of Medidata NEXT London and will give a presentation on data analytics for early-phase oncology trials. The presentation will cover how working with Medidata has helped them apply visualization techniques and strategies to extract the total value of information for all stakeholders.
Medidata is a Dassault Systèmes company poised to drive the digital transformation of life sciences in the age of personalized medicine with its 3DEXPERIENCE platform. This platform is the first end-to-end scientific and business solution, from research to commercialization.
Medidata's head of Global Sales, Janet Butler, commented, "Allucent is leveraging the power of the Medidata Clinical Cloud to solidify their position at the forefront of clinical technology." She further emphasized, "Their work with novel therapies requires agile, patient-centric solutions. We are proud to build on our eight-year collaboration to advance the digital transformation of life sciences and deliver clinical innovations to help reach their goals."
(Source – Business Wire)
About Medidata Solutions
Medidata Solutions is a New York-based global provider of cloud-based software solutions for clinical trials. Its platform, the Medidata Clinical Cloud, enables pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device companies, and academic research organizations to manage all aspects of clinical trials, including study design, data capture, management, and analysis. Medidata's platform can capture real-time data from multiple sources, including electronic health records and wearable devices, to monitor patients closely, identify potential safety issues earlier, and make informed decisions about trial design and treatment protocols. The platform also features advanced analytics tools like machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to help researchers analyze and interpret their data. In 2019, Dassault Systèmes, a global leader in 3D design software and simulation solutions, acquired Medidata, further enhancing its platform.
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BUSINESS INSIGHTS, PHARMA TECH
Businesswire | March 29, 2023
Simulations Plus, Inc. a leading provider of modeling and simulation software and services for pharmaceutical safety and efficacy, today announced that it established a strategic research collaboration with the Sino-American Cancer Foundation (SACF). This collaboration will leverage Simulations Plus’ staff and Artificial Intelligence-driven Drug Design technology in the ADMET Predictor® software platform to support the discovery and design of novel inhibitors of methylenetetrahydrofolate dehydrogenase 2 (MTHFD2), an emerging cancer target.
Per the terms of the collaboration, Simulations Plus will develop quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models for efficacy against MTHFD2, using information from SACF as well as academic and patent literature. The biologists, computational and medicinal chemists in the Early Drug Discovery Services team at Simulations Plus will work with the researchers at SACF to define the multi-objective parameters against which the lead molecule(s) will be optimized. The new AIDD Module in ADMET Predictor® will then be employed to generate libraries of virtual compounds that are optimized for potency and other chosen parameters. The teams will select promising candidates for synthesis and testing, and ensuing rounds of QSAR model building and AIDD optimization will be performed until the milestone criteria in the collaboration agreement are achieved.
“We value the trust and confidence SACF has in our team and AI technology to complement and accelerate conventional drug design and lead optimization processes,” said Dr. Jeremy Jones, Principal Scientist at Simulations Plus and project lead. “By combining their drug discovery expertise with our algorithmic and data science know-how, we are confident we will successfully support their hit-to-lead target development activities.”
As part of this agreement, SACF will provide upfront funding to Simulations Plus to design a set number of compounds for efficacy against MTHFD2 which will be exclusive to SACF. Subsequent milestone payments will be made as key research and development goals are met.
“SACF has had an active interest in AI for de novo design for some time, and we have found a trusted partner in Simulations Plus to help us integrate this into our research,” added Dr. Frank Luh, CEO of SACF. “Scientists from the two organizations will work side-by-side to combine SACF’s data with all that Simulations Plus offers to identify the next generation of compounds that could help in the treatment of cancer.”
John DiBella, SLP Division President, said, “The Early Drug Discovery Services offering at Simulations Plus is tailor made for this type of partnership, where our team of experts, including computational, medicinal, and cheminformatics specialists, provide end-to-end AI-driven drug discovery and optimization support to complement the SACF team. Simulations Plus continues to invite future collaborations which benefit organizations and, most importantly, the global communities we serve.”
About Simulations Plus, Inc.
Serving clients worldwide for more than 25 years, Simulations Plus is a leading provider in the biosimulation market providing software and consulting services supporting drug discovery, development, research, and regulatory submissions. We offer solutions that bridge machine learning, physiologically based pharmacokinetics, quantitative systems pharmacology/toxicology, and population PK/PD modeling approaches. Our technology is licensed and applied by major pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and regulatory agencies worldwide.
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