One of the greatest abilities in a human arsenal is how we can become better under each and every situation. This ability, in particular, has allowed us to hit upon some huge milestones, and one among them is the highly popular idea of technology. While the reason why technology gets so much traction in these discussions is inspired by its unique skill-set, it is also, at the same time, predicated upon the manner in which those skills were used. The latter component will, in fact, do a lot to give the creation a spectrum-wide presence, including a very well-timed appearance on our healthcare block. Technology’s foray into healthcare couldn’t have arrived at a better time because it came right when the sector was starting to struggling against its own obsolete structure. Fortunately, though, those new and smarter tech ideas will be wholly successful in shaking up the stated reality, but even after achieving such a monumental feat, the famous medtech concept will continue to deliver the right goods. If anything, this dynamic should only grow stronger on the back of one recent partnership.
PathAI, a global leader in AI-powered pathology, has officially signed off on a multi-year expanded collaboration agreement with Bristol Meyers Squibb, as the two companies now look to leverage AI-powered pathology for translational research and clinical trials. According to certain reports, the partnership will initially focus on areas like oncology, fibrosis, and immunology. Talk about what they are expected to do on a granular level, the two companies will bet on cutting-edge AI pathology models to establish a better structure for identifying populations, and consequentially, de-risk treatment development across the entire BMS pipeline. PathAI and BMS are also planning to leverage the said models for generating critical insights so to unlock an improved segmentation of patients in various clinical trials. To round up what seems like a comprehensive collaboration, the partners do have an intention to develop AI-powered diagnostics. This, notably enough, includes conceiving a special device to measure CD8 T-cell infiltration across several oncology disease areas.
“We look forward to collaborating with PathAI to expand the potential application of AI in the drug development process to include translational research, clinical trials and diagnostic advancements,” said Robert Plenge, M.D., Ph.D., Bristol Myers Squibb Senior Vice President and Head, Immunology, Cardiovascular and Fibrosis Thematic Research Center, and Head, Translational Medicine. “We feel that PathAI will be a productive collaborator given digital pathology represents a growing area for BMS.”
While it feels like a new journey altogether, PathAI and BMS already share a long history of working together. After linking up for the first time in 2016, the companies, in 2020, delivered retrospective exploratory findings from completed clinical trials on AI-powered PD-L1 scoring, deeming more patients as PD-L1 positive than the manual one. More recently in July 2022, the partners published fresher exploratory data in the Journal of Modern Pathology. There, they compared the use of AI-powered algorithms with manual IHC scoring PD-L1 expression in the context of general outcomes across several cancer types. Hence, given the leaps they have made, PathAI and BMS are well-positioned to really scale up the healthcare space moving forward.
