Massive Bio Partners with Biden Cancer Initiative to Improve Access to Oncology Clinical Trials

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 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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