Merck & Co. and Accenture, a management consulting company, have partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to launch a cloud-based informatics research platform designed to help organizations in the life-sciences industry improve productivity, efficiency, and innovation in the early stages of drug development.

The new research platform, being developed by Merck & Co. and Accenture, is being designed to create open, industry-standard application programming interfaces for core research functions, allowing researchers to adopt new capabilities.

The platform will allow life-sciences researchers and informatics professionals to quickly aggregate, access, and analyze research data from multiple applications. Data will now be accessible through a single set of interfaces, with integrated workflow, reporting and analytics capabilities. Incorporating a modern user interface and a secure, multi-tenant environment, the platform will unify user experience elements and enable easier collaboration across the research and development (R&D) enterprise, including with external partners.

Merck is collaborating with Accenture on this launch and will be the first pharmaceutical company to use the platform. “The convergence of numerous scientific and technological advances provides unprecedented opportunities to translate novel insights into human disease biology into meaningful therapies,” Joe Miletich, Senior Vice President of Research at Merck & Co. said in a September 17, 2018 statement. “Capitalizing on these opportunities requires an ability to rapidly find and explore associations across data sets that are increasing dramatically in size and number. Our collaboration will create a scientific technology marketplace providing the capabilities our researchers need to extend our tradition of scientific innovation, enabling our mission of bringing new breakthrough therapies to the patients who need them.”

The platform is built on AWS to use its secure cloud services to help increase operational efficiency, strengthen business intelligence, and quickly develop products and services. This new platform is one of the outcomes of an ongoing collaboration between Accenture and AWS through the Accenture AWS Business Group.

Accenture is also forming a coalition of clients to govern and further advance the capabilities of this platform, offering an opportunity for pre-competitive industry collaboration. The platform is available to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and scientific research organizations that are seeking approaches to solve research informatics challenges.

Source: Accenture