Bristol-Myers Squibb’s research efforts will be getting an artificial intelligence boost thanks to a new multi-year deal signed by the pharmaceutical company and Concerto HealthAI, the maker of a clinical insight generation platform that employs real-world data in its analyses.

According to the announcement, Concerto’s eurekaHealth tool will “accelerate insights through novel health economic outcomes and clinical development synthetic control arm studies” related to a range of different cancers. To do so, Concerto’s tool pulls real-world data collected from a number of sources including the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s CancerLinQ, with which Concerto holds an exclusive license.

“Concerto HealthAI’s singular mission … is to partner with leading medical societies, healthcare providers and life science companies to bring together data, technology and talent to enable new RWE insights and improve the use and broaden the beneficial impact of cancer therapies for patients,” Dr. Jeff Elton, CEO of Concerto HealthAI, said in a statement. “The strategic agreement between Bristol-Myers Squibb and Concerto HealthAI reflects both how far the field has advanced and its high near-term potential.”

Why it matters

New advances in machine learning and large-scale data collection have allow real-world data analyses to become a more common, and more cost effective, means of investigating new treatments. As such, this new deal is the latest example of an increasing demand for real-world evidence among both pharmas and regulatory bodies like the FDA.

“Our agreement with Bristol-Myers Squibb is a recognition that we have reached a pivot-point for [real-world evidence] — it is not just a tool for generating insights into the current standard of care, but a field in its own right that can lead to optimization of current treatments and new therapeutic innovations,” Elton said.

What’s the trend

Concerto and its data partners are already part of a collaboration with the FDA that is exploring the real-world outcomes of immune checkpoint inhibitor use. Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb and oncology-specific EHR software startup Flatiron Health are also in the midst of a three-year agreement that is using the latter’s real-world data for tumor research.

On the record

“At Bristol-Myers Squibb, we have seen the value of Real-World Data in our efforts to discover, develop and deliver medicines for patients,” Jeff Conklin, SVP and head of business insights and analytics at Bristol-Myers Squibb, said in a statement. “This strategic agreement with Concerto HealthAI — a leader in AI solutions for precision oncology — reinforces our commitment to pursue data science to accelerate disease insights, advance novel study concepts and achieve precision in treatment, with the goal of improving patient outcomes.”