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Pharma Moves (/topics/pharma-moves)

LabCorp's latest deal hones in

on digital clinical trials for drug
development
The company's drug development CRO, Covance, will integrate
Medable's software to expand its decentralized trial capabilities.

By Dave Muoio (/content/dave-muoio) May 28, 2020 03:15 pm SHARE

Clinical lab and drug development giant LabCorp announced

this morning a new deal that will streamline its adoption of
virtual clinical trials.

The company's drug development-focused contract research

organization (CRO), Covance, will use digital clinical trial
software maker Medable's platform to fuel its patient and site
interface. This will allow participants easy access to clinical trial
apps, while ensuring stronger engagement, remote data
collection and system interoperability.

WHY IT MATTERS
LabCorp's Covance is among the largest drug development CROs
in the world, offering a range of services across different
therapeutic areas, development phases and product types. The
company first unveiled its decentralized clinical trial system in
late 2019, but the new deal suggests that these capabilities will
be an even greater focus for the global CRO going forward.

“Working together, we can apply the full capabilities of LabCorp

Diagnostics business, Covance, and our technology ecosystem to
extend patient access, improve the patient experience, and
accelerate timelines for clinical development,” Bill Hanlon,
president of enterprise solutions at Covance, said in a
statement. “We will continue to play a critical role as
aggregators and integrators to provide customers with the
access, flexibility, and scale necessary to enable global
decentralized studies, and to rapidly innovate in ways that
improve the patient experience and trial efficiency.”

Also of note, LabCorp told Reuters

(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-
labcorp/labcorp-ties-up-with-software-provider-to-expand-
virtual-clinical-trials-idUSKBN2341RU?
feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews) that it has seen a
substantial number of participants dropping out of ongoing
studies as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Decentralized digital trials would provide the company a way to
keep these programs on track during the coming months.

THE LARGER TREND

Major pharmas and other drug development stakeholders

are increasingly aware
(https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/north-
america/pharma-wont-benefit-digital-innovation-without-
anticipating-its-challenges) of the benefits digital clinical trials
have to offer, so it's little surprise to see startups become
increasingly active in the space. It was only weeks ago that
Medable announced a $25 million funding round, which it said
at the time would fuel new product development, partnerships
and market adoption.
The startup is among a number of startups
(https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/innovative-
startups-improving-clinical-trial-recruitment-enrollment-
retention-and-design) active in this space that
includes Florence
(https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/north-
america/florence-gets-71m-bring-ebinders-clinical-trials),
which raised $7.1 million last fall, and Tekro
(https://www.mobihealthnews.com/content/digital-clinical-
trial-startup-closes-25m-series-c-round), which brought in $25
million last year.

ON THE RECORD

"The LabCorp ecosystem powered by Medable leverages big

data convenient research participation with home diagnostic
testing and remote care and research participation," Dr. Michelle
Longmire, CEO and cofounder of Medable, told MobiHealthNews
in an email statement. "Patients can now leverage the full power
of the ecosystem to conveniently participate in clinical trials on
their own terms. We believe this advancement is paramount to
broadening access to new investigational therapies and
dramatically reducing clinical trial timelines."

Tags: LabCorp (/tag/labcorp), Covance (/tag/covance), Medable

(/tag/medable), digital health deals (/tag/digital-health-deals),
digital clinical trial (/tag/digital-clinical-trial), remote clinical