"Oncology therapeutics contributes ~60% of the total revenue of Roche, and it is critical to maintaining the market leadership to sustain business performance. With the patent of its key drugs Rituxan, Herceptin, and Avastin set to expire in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, only in the U.S., it is essential for the company to fast-track the development and approval of new drugs."
"The Flatiron platform captures and normalizes both structured and unstructured oncology data from diverse source systems. It also captures unstructured data from sources such as laboratories, research repositories, payer networks, among others, and its analytics engine pulls out relevant insights from the unstructured data, which, when combined with electronic medical records (EMR) data, generate the real-world evidence. Through its innovative approach, Flatiron addresses a few important issues: how to improve clinical trial results, how to optimize the process of clinical trial eligibility assessment, and how to enable pharmaceutical companies to innovate with groundbreaking research that progresses the human race and pushes the boundary of human capability. For Roche, the regulator-worthy, clinical research-grade data, which is being extracted by the Flatiron Health oncology practice network in almost real time, is of immense value and can be used for readout of drug efficacy and utility. In a nutshell, Roche will save money on clinical trials, make quicker decisions, and have a faster time-to-market. A blockbuster drug takes approximately 12 years and $4 billion-$11 billion of investment. Flatiron may help Roche expedite market launch and save R&D cost for its upcoming oncology drugs. Further, Flatiron oncology practice network and patient data can be used by Roche in its digital marketing initiatives, patient assistance programs, and other commercial applications. Considering that this network is highly specialized and focused on oncology, the acquisition provides Roche even greater competitive advantage in the oncology drugs market."
"The Flatiron platform captures and normalizes both structured and unstructured oncology data from diverse source systems. It also captures unstructured data from sources such as laboratories, research repositories, payer networks, among others, and its analytics engine pulls out relevant insights from the unstructured data, which, when combined with electronic medical records (EMR) data, generate the real-world evidence."
While only 3-5% of clinical trial enrollment yields desired results, the Flatiron platform can identify the right patient cohorts for almost 15 types of cancer conditions for clinical trials, saving millions of dollars.