Massive Bio, Inc., a leader in precision medicine and patient centric
clinical trial matching, announces today its partnership in the Biden
Cancer Initiative’s Oncology Clinical Trial Information Commons (OCTIC).
OCTIC is a shared platform where all information about clinical trials
can be stored and accessed for patient matching and other data mining.
The system will employ a single set of terms and rules, plus a
user-friendly interface for biopharma companies to readily enter and
update their trials. Nine organizations join forces with the Biden
Cancer Initiative to make clinical trial information available, paving
the way for improved trial matching technology and services. Founding
members are Massive Bio, BreastCancerTrials.org, Cancer Commons,
Ciitizen, EmergingMed, GenomOncology, Sarah Cannon Research Institute,
IBM Watson Health, and Syapse. The announcement was made at the Annual
meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago on
June 1, 2019.
“Massive Bio is looking forward to working toward a common goal of
making it easier for patients across the country to have access to and
knowledge of clinical trials,” said Selin Kurnaz, PhD., Co-founder and
CEO of Massive Bio. In addition, she has added that, “Massive Bio is
excited to work with the Biden Cancer Initiative and other healthcare
innovators to eliminate redundancy in oncology clinical trials. More
specifically how the information should be entered, stored and accessed
for patient matching and other data mining in clinical trial protocols
at ClinicalTrials.Gov. Like every other healthcare company, we spend a
significant amount of time to structure and correct the information in
ClinicalTrials.Gov with our proprietary technology. We have constant
interactions with pharmaceutical companies and CROs to keep information
complete and current. Luckily, in our organization, we also spend a
significant amount of time on patient engagement and reducing
operational barriers in clinical trial enrollment, which I like to call
‘the last mile in patient enrollment’. These last mile issues are
typically the unavailability of a close by site or insurance issue that
prevents the patient to enroll in clinical trials – even if they are
clinically eligible. The enrollment rate drops by 75% because of these
last mile issues which are quite significant although it is highly
under-appreciated or overlooked. We want to focus more on solving high
value-added problems and we are obsessed with delivering positive
outcomes for cancer patients as opposed to data cleaning and structuring
which are necessary but not sufficient to create value. It is important
for like-minded brains to come together to get this out of the way so
that each company will start to focus on high value and high impact
areas of clinical trials. In addition, it is also important to
collaborate heavily with pharmaceutical companies and CROs so that we
are not doing this in a vacuum. The future is bright. Massive Bio always
has day one spirit and with the trust and belief of our patients and
support of our partner ecosystem, we are beyond ready to tackle massive
problems and help millions of patients.”
Massive Bio’s Co-founder and Chief Medical Advisor, Arturo
Loaiza-Bonilla, MD, MSEd, mentions that, “Whether it is landing on Mars
or finding cancer cures, whenever a noble cause is sought, collaboration
is the only way to accomplish its goals. At Massive Bio we are very
proud and excited to be part of this founding collaboration powered by
the Clinical Trials Acceleration team from the Biden Cancer Initiative,
which includes the most innovative and cutting-edge institutions and
technology companies from around the US, working as a team to improve
access to clinical trials for every patient, everywhere. By joining the
OCTIC, we look forward to bringing our Artificial Intelligence (AI)
enabled precision oncology expertise and patient-centered perspective to
advance cancer research further and to forge a new era of making
clinical trials accessible and readily available to all.”
Massive Bio is a young company working relentlessly to eliminate
barriers in oncology clinical trials. Partnership with the Biden Cancer
Initiative and other healthcare innovators will certainly accelerate and
amplify positive impact to cancer patients. Thus, Massive Bio invites
oncology value chain stakeholders for strong and tangible partnerships
to advance the field and provide the cutting edge treatment that cancer
patients deserve regardless of their location and financial stability.
About Massive Bio:
Massive Bio (http://www.massivebio.com)
connects patients and their treating oncologist to the best available
treatment options including clinical trials and advanced care options
while enabling enterprises to get access to patients at community
practices to enhance oncology research. Massive Bio provides virtual
tumor board, clinical trial services (patient identification,
pre-screening, site selection) and real-world evidence services. Massive
Bio’s enterprise customers are Contract Research Organizations (CROs),
pharmaceutical companies, diagnostics labs and providers.
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