In an effort to tap patient communities for insights on drug development, AstraZeneca has inked a five-year deal with PatientsLikeMe, according to a company statement.
Ed Godber, executive vice president of Life Sciences Ventures at PatientsLikeMe, said unlike most of its pharma collaborations, which have been with U.S. affiliates of drug companies, “this one integrates us into the engine of R&D globally. AstraZeneca is putting the patient voice and PatientsLikeMe into the DNA of their innovation process.”
The pharmaceutical company will initially focus on respiratory diseases, as well as lupus, oncology and diabetes. It will rely on data from PatientsLikeMe to influence the course of drug development.
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In an emailed statement, AstraZeneca executive vice president for Global Medicines Development, Briggs Morrison, said:
“This collaboration will ensure patient perspectives from these initial four areas for study are built into the design of our clinical trial programs and the medicines we are developing. We hope to gain greater insight into patient needs and perspectives, generating evidence that can positively impact research and development and drive our science, which in turn has potential to transform healthcare decision-making and improve patients’ lives,” he said. “Together, we have the ambition to have patient experience, both individually and collectively, rise to the level of ‘evidence’ to be considered by healthcare decision makers including regulators, payers and healthcare providers.”
Morrison also said the company is interested in getting information about how patients live with their condition. Patients’ criteria for what would give treatments value could be critical to how AstraZeneca will develop its next generation of medicines.
One of the drug companies that worked with PatientsLikeMe last year was Actelion Pharmaceuticals to use its OpenResearchExchange to collect patient insights for a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma that affects the skin called Mycosis fungoides. Genentech, Merck and Sanofi have also worked with PatientsLikeMe.
One ongoing debate in drug development is a gap between patients’ priorities for how a drug could improve their quality of life and how drug developers define those priorities. One of the benefits of patient community social networks like PatientsLikeMe is the ability to bring patients with diverse conditions to one place where drug developers can collaborate with them.
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Update: This story has been updated from an earlier version to include responses to follow up questions for PatientsLikeMe and AstraZeneca.
