SAS accelerates delivery of novel medicines using AI and analytics

SAS, a leader in AI and analytics, is helping to revolutionise the use of clinical trial data so new medicines can be delivered to patients faster than before. After a thorough evaluation, SAS has been chosen by global biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to help increase efficiency and drive automation in the delivery of statistical analyses for clinical and post-approval submissions to regulatory authorities, via SAS’s cloud-based software and technologies.

SAS will support the redesign of clinical and patient data flow by delivering industry-leading analytics and AI, manage changing trial designs in a fast-evolving regulatory environment, enable data re-use, and help accelerate reporting and submission timelines.  It will also deliver increased capacity, automation, interoperability, and flexibility to bring in and analyse diverse and novel patient data sources (such as those coming from wearables, sensors and precision medicine) as part of the submissions process.

This will be achieved by supporting the analysis and reporting phases with SAS Life Science Analytics Framework and SAS Viya, a scalable and powerful cloud-based industry platform enabling swift decision-making regardless of data volumes or complexity using modern cloud technologies. This has the potential to provide significant productivity gains by driving faster time to market and reduced IT costs. The SAS and AstraZeneca partnership will enable teams across the organisation to collaborate and increase clinical research innovation.

Christopher J Miller, VP Biometrics at AstraZeneca, said: “This partnership with SAS supports the transformation of how we use clinical data to support our patient-centric approach and focus on getting medicines to patients faster than ever before. It will also allow us to introduce new ways of working and embrace new technologies and trial models to accelerate our portfolio”.

Bryan Harris, SAS Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, said: “I’m delighted that SAS is building on the strong relationship it has had with AstraZeneca over many years by being part of this transformation programme. The work they do positively impacts the lives of millions of people around the world.

“This is exciting because we have solidified a great foundation between our companies, but we also recognise we are just scratching the surface. We pay attention to technology and the advancements in AI, and we thrive on thinking through how our technology blended with AstraZeneca’s expertise and insight can create new medical solutions for their customers.”