Life sciences digital transformation company Medidata, today announced the launch of Acorn AI, a new company designed to provide actionable insights across the entire drug continuum – from R&D to commercialization. In addition, the company has appointed Rama Kondru, Ph.D., as the chief information officer for Medidata and Acorn AI’s first CIO to lead the company’s enterprise data strategy, architecture and future platform development – all helping the company to accelerate the creation of leading-edge technologies, like AI and IoT capabilities.
Why Acorn AI?
Powered by two decades of investments totaling over $1 billion in platforms, data pipelines, data science and automation, Acorn AI is the next horizon of the company’s 20-year journey of powering smarter treatments and healthier people. Acorn AI is aimed to solve companies’ complex scientific and commercial challenges – consisting of a portfolio of new products that enable better decisions, improve study success and speed, and help demonstrate value to regulators, payors, providers and the patient.
Acorn AI Platform-as-a-Service Model
Acorn AI is designed to provide actionable insights to the front lines of decision-making by making data liquid across the entire lifecycle, from R&D to commercialization. Leveraging the company’s AI capabilities and expertise, customers and partners can now unlock the power of data to conquer the most complex diseases.
Acorn AI is built on top of the Medidata platform, comprised of more than 17,000 clinical trials and the industry’s largest structured, standardized clinical data repository with over 4.8 million patients. Acorn AI immediately becomes one of the leading AI companies dedicated to life sciences.
To solve companies’ most complex scientific and commercial challenges, Acorn AI is proposing new products such as a Value Discovery Engine to make better go/no-go decisions; Intelligent Trials to improve study success and speed; Integrated Evidence to help demonstrate value to regulators, payors, providers and patients; and Connected Devices to integrate the new generation of medical devices within the digital healthcare ecosystem.
Acorn AI Leadership Team
The Acorn AI team is led by industry veterans who are shaping the future of life sciences. Sastry Chilukuri, who recently joined Medidata, is now the president of Acorn AI. Rachel Sherman, M.D., former principal deputy commissioner of FDA, joins as the chief scientific and medical advisor. Kathy McGroddy-Goetz, Ph.D., who joined Medidata from IBM Watson Health, drives strategy and alliances. Rama Kondru, leads technology development for Acorn AI, in addition to handling his broader responsibilities as the newly appointed CIO of Medidata.
Impact for Life Sciences Companies
“Life science firms are looking at data-centric and AI-based business models to revamp functions, such as drug discovery, R&D, clinical trials, and commercial operations, to cater to an evolving patient profile, a converging ecosystem, and emerging therapy areas. They are looking for strategic partners that can deliver AI-as-a-Service, underwriting their risk of innovation. Medidata’s new venture, Acorn AI, builds on a combination of deep life science pedigree, proprietary data sets, and AI methodologies to help life science customers reimagine their operating model,” said Nitish Mittal, Practice Director at Everest Group.
