Open Orphan signs early adopters for health databank

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Ellie Donnelly

Open Orphan, a European- focused rare and orphan drug consulting services business, has signed five pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as early adopters of its Genomic Health databank platform.

The platform, which is due to be completed and rolled out early next year, is establishing a rare disease database.

The five companies that have signed up to it will aim to ensure it is fit-for-purpose from a pharmaceutical and data analysis perspective ahead of the first patient data upload.

In addition, Open Orphan is working to finalise early adopter agreements with several patient advocacy groups, who will make their patients aware of the database.

Open Orphan said it hopes to make an announcement on this front shortly.

These agreements will allow Open Orphan to deliver on its objective to build Europe's first rare disease, advocacy-led genomic database, helping enable patients to directly drive research into their own respective disease.

Maurice Treacy, chief commercial officer of Open Orphan, said: “We are very excited to be working with these leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on our market leading DataBANK.

The Genomic Health databank, which makes extensive use of AI tools, is an innovative research tool for pharmaceutical companies, and we are excited by its potential when launched in early 2020.”

Earlier this year, Open Orphan, which is headed by Cathal Friel – formerly of Fastnet Oil and Gas and Amryt Pharma – acquired Venn Life Sciences in a reverse takeover.