PPD, Evidera join NEWDIGS Initiative at MIT as a Strategic Partner

Collaboration to drive innovation across health care ecosystem

WILMINGTON, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD), and its real-world research and market access business unit, Evidera, have joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Biomedical Innovation’s New Drug Development Paradigms (NEWDIGS) initiative as a strategic partner.

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PPD is the first contract research organization to join NEWDIGS, expanding the group’s already large and diverse list of global collaborators, which includes biopharmaceutical manufacturers, care providers, regulators, payers, health authorities, health technology assessment bodies, patient advocacy groups and other health care stakeholders. NEWDIGS provides its members an environment, programs and practices for open, non-competitive collaboration so they can develop solutions for systemwide impediments to biomedical innovation and patient care.

“We are excited to be a NEWDIGS partner because it is a results-focused organization active in many of the same areas in which we have expertise,” said Jon Williams, president of Evidera. “Our relationship with NEWDIGS is an extension of our numerous ongoing innovation efforts in the areas of real-world research, patient-centered research, pragmatic trials and platform studies. This partnership will allow us to broaden our focus, and we will benefit from diverse points of view as we work to positively impact the health care landscape.”

Evidera initially will participate in the new Learning Ecosystems Accelerator for Patient-Centered, Sustainable Innovation (LEAPS) project, in which it will help design and pilot an ecosystem for purpose-driven evidence generation and integration focused on a critical disease area (including both real-world evidence and data from randomized controlled trials). The project aims to create sustainable, commercially viable and scalable tools – including platform trial infrastructure and its extension into community health care settings – to drive more value faster to patients in ways that work for all stakeholders in health care development and delivery.

“We are pleased to welcome PPD and Evidera to the NEWDIGS community of health care innovators,” said Gigi Hirsch, M.D., executive director of NEWDIGS. “In collaboration with the diverse stakeholders already involved, their expertise and capabilities will be important in advancing the design, piloting and scaling of components of the LEAPS innovation ecosystem.”

LEAPS work areas will evolve over time, but may include:

• Enhancing evidence planning and production across the drug development life span to fuel sustainable patient-centered innovation
• Applying systems engineering methods and tools to enable seamless, continuous learning and improvement across the innovation value chain (from R&D to care delivery) for a target disease
• Exploring potential applications of transformative technologies and methods, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence/machine learning

For more information on how NEWDIGS and PPD are working together to advance these areas, please contact Evidera.

About PPD

PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing comprehensive, integrated drug development, laboratory and lifecycle management services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 47 countries and approximately 20,000 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a firm commitment to quality to help clients and partners bend the cost and time curve of drug development and optimize value in delivering life-changing therapies to improve health. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com.

About Evidera

Evidera, a PPD business unit, is a leading provider of evidence-based solutions to demonstrate the real-world effectiveness, safety and value of health care products. We help biopharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies generate the evidence needed to optimize the market access and commercial potential of their products. For more information, visit www.evidera.com.

About NEWDIGS

The NEW Drug Development ParadIGmS (NEWDIGS) Initiative at MIT is an international “think and do tank” dedicated to delivering more value faster to patients, in ways that work for all stakeholders. NEWDIGS designs, evaluates and initiates advancements that are too complex and cross-cutting to be addressed by a single organization or market sector. Its members include global leaders from patient advocacy, payer organizations, biopharmaceutical companies, regulatory agencies, clinical care, academic research and investment firms. For more information, visit http://newdigs.mit.edu.

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PPD Contacts

Media:

Randy Buckwalter, +1-919-456-4425

[email protected]

or

Investors:

Nate Speicher, +1-910-558-6783

[email protected]

or

MIT NEWDIGS Contact

Deborah Young, +1-617-324-7756

Operations Director

[email protected]

Source: PPD