support innovations in digital health and related health technologies.
With each company committing $50 million to the fund, Valencia says the joint fund grew out of discussions he’s had over the past three years with David Epstein, the pharmaceuticals division head at Novartis. “We started having discussions around types of startups and innovations we would like to see,” Valencia says.
So what’s the significance of the Novartis-Qualcomm Life collaboration in clinical trials?
In conventional clinical trials, much of the data used to support new drug applications are collected from the patients themselves. They log their own data in patient journals. Instead of basing new drug applications on such “self-reported data,” Novartis is now moving to wireless technology that automatically collects patient data remotely, using health sensors that measure pertinent vital signs.
The difference is huge, according to Patrick and others, because studies have shown that patients tend to fudge, so that “self-reported data” can be notoriously inaccurate. In clinical trials, the key to winning regulatory approval lies in generating enough data to prove the safety and efficacy of new drug candidates to health regulators. So the quality of the data is imperative.
Patrick contends that automated data collection will amass a bigger and more comprehensive database, which can be analyzed more thoroughly for signs of side effects and other long-term problems. Experts say costs also can be substantially reduced over time.
As Patrick puts it, “It can’t be overstated, how big the bump is in comparing continuously collected data with self-reported data.”
Qualcomm Life has spent years building out its wireless reference design and technology licensing business for medical-grade data collection. The number of FDA-approved sensors for remotely monitoring patient health also has been proliferating—as part of an explosion in wearable health and fitness trackers that was a major theme at last week’s CES show.
The market for clinical trials data already has proved to be a bonanza for Entra Health Systems (EHS), a San Diego-based startup that won
