AstraZeneca reaches deal with RenalytixAI to develop medicine strategies for a variety of diseases

pharmafile | August 24, 2020 | News story | Sales and Marketing |  AI, chronic disease 

AstraZeneca and RenalytixAI have agreed a deal to develop joint precision medicine strategies for cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases.

The companies will first target chronic kidney disease and use RenaltytixAI’s diagnostic platform, called KidneyIntelX, to examine how to improve patient outcomes. The companies will look to use the technology to optimise current therapeutics used to treat the disease, and based on the study’s outcomes will hope to initiate a randomised clinical trial.

Barbara Murphy, a board member at RenalytixAI, said: “We believe this collaboration will define how we can leverage KidneyIntelX to improve the care and outcomes for patients affected by chronic diseases. By using a more personalised approach, our initial goal is to help realise improved outcomes for more than 240,000 patients with chronic kidney disease.”

KidneyIntelIX uses an AI-driven algorithm that combines data inputs like patient data and blood-based biomarkers to create a unique patient risk score. It was launched in 2018 after it received $29 million in funding.

Tarek Rabah, AstraZeneca’s Vice President of US Renal-Cardio, also commented: “This collaborative approach reflects the shared vision of AstraZeneca and RenalytixAI to develop meaningful solutions to tackle significant challenges in healthcare in a holistic way. We are committed to revolutionising kidney care by continuing to drive innovation. An important component of our work is identifying patients with significant unmet needs and providing them with more personalised interventions.”

Conor Kavanagh