Private-public partnership to be a game changer in the oncology clinical trials ecosystem

Pharma News: Singapore-based firm Oncoshot, a health insights exchange platform in the clinical trials ecosystem, has entered into a collaboration agreement with Omico, the Australian Genomic Cancer Medicine Centre. 

As one of the first of its kind in Australia, this collaboration between Omico and Oncoshot is a potential reference model when it comes to secure and timely data sharing for clinical trials between private and public healthcare stakeholders.

Medical oncologist Dr Huren Sivaraj, Co-founder & CEO of Oncoshot, joined Health Industry Hub to discuss the key priorities in the Australian clinical trial ecosystem and the current challenges Oncoshot is aiming to address.

Industry-sponsored clinical trials cost ~1.4B per year in Australia. Industry sponsors select where to conduct clinical trials based upon a range of factors including costs per patient, trial start-up time and the ability for sites to recruit patients in an acceptable timeframe. Dr Sivaraj reflected on the incentives and motivators for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in considering the Oncoshot solution.

Dr Sivaraj said “When I started my journey with Oncoshot, there was an eventual vision of how my clinical care would also evolve. I imagine that the ability for data to flow in real time and to provide the appropriate analytics for ‘How does the patient match into a clinical trial? And, how does the clinical trial find matching patients in the hospital?’

“I envision that as an oncologist on a day to day basis, for every patient sitting in front of me, I will be able to pull out not just the medical records, but the landscape and visibility of clinical trial options [available to that patient] – not just limited to my domain of knowledge, expertise or awareness at that point of what’s happening my centre – but in a holistic manner.

“Patients should be able to see the standard available therapies and the clinical trial options that are equally relevant for them, and every oncologist would have the opportunity to discuss those developmental therapy options at every time point in the treatment journey. I think that’s where we want to be over the coming years, and that’s where I believe patient outcomes will be truly impacted.”

Oncoshot is also undertaking collaborations within Singapore and India to boost the clinical trials ecosystem and enhance patient care.