By Heather Landi

Tech company COTA aims to advance real-world data use in drug development and research, particularly for cancer treatments, and is building out partnerships to deepen its data insights.

The company is partnering with Genomic Testing Cooperative to integrate its clinical oncology real-world data with GTC’s comprehensive genomics testing data. There is a huge need to advance oncology care treatment and discovery, and that represents a big swing opportunity for both organizations.

COTA provides oncology real-world data abstraction, curation and analytics capabilities to healthcare provider organizations and life sciences companies that are curating and developing treatments for patients living with a wide range of cancers. The company combines oncology expertise with technology-enabled data abstraction techniques to curate longitudinal and de-identified data sets based on patient data from electronic health records, labs and other sources, according to the company

GTC operates comprehensive banks of both RNA and DNA genomics and testing data. The molecular testing organization works with physicians, research centers and pharma companies to provide genomic profiling data.

Bringing them together in an integrated fashion will help accelerate precision medicine for more personalized cancer care while also increasing the speed and reducing costs for life science companies, according to COTA’s CEO and president, Miruna Sasu, Ph.D.,.

While COTA previously had access to clinically actionable biomarker data, it was not as complete as what GTC offers, she noted.

“GTC has very deep genomics data; they have RNA sequencing and DNA sequencing of the tumor environment and of the tumor itself. We are now diving even deeper, not just on the patient journey, but also into the patient’s biology and understanding the demographics, laboratory results, diagnoses and all of the electronic medical records data plus that deeper biology understanding, and that is infinitely more useful,” Sasu said in an interview.

GTC’s tissue-based and liquid biopsy testing uniquely leverages DNA and RNA sequencing for both solid and hematologic cancers to generate information on mutations, chromosomal structural abnormalities, biomarkers that can replace or complement immunohistochemistry, flow cytometry and standard tumor markers. This comprehensive profiling is captured before treatment and frequently after relapse so a fuller picture of treatment impact on a specific patient population can be understood.

COTA’s partnership with GTC will provide researchers and clinicians with the multimodal data needed to conduct more targeted research and deliver personalized cancer treatments, Sasu said.

According to GTC’s CEO and chief medical officer, Maher Albitar, M.D., integrating both DNA and RNA profiling in the management of patients with cancer has become essential in the proper practice of precision medicine. “Together, these highly valuable data sets will not only help advance scientific discovery, but will enable researchers to create predictive models that will allow for more personalized approaches to treatments for people facing cancer now and in the future,” he said.

This latest partnership builds on COTA’s recent announcement that it is joining the Clinical Research Data Sharing Alliance, a collection of biopharma companies, data sharing platforms, academic institutions and service and technology partners that share clinical data to advance research.

Sasu, a pharma executive veteran, took the helm at COTA in March 2022, about a year after joining the company as its chief strategy officer. She is bullish on the potential for real-world data to revolutionize how life science companies, healthcare providers and patients work together, from drug development and commercialization to patient solutions.

A 2021 survey of 200 practicing oncologists found 83% believe real-world data are critical to accelerating the development of potentially lifesaving cancer drugs and treatments.

As the importance of real-world data grows, Sasu aims to take its use in precision oncology to new levels.

COTA was founded in 2011 by a team of doctors, engineers and data scientists to create clarity from fragmented and often inaccessible real-world data. The company shifted its strategy two years ago to serve as a bridge not only in the healthcare provider space but also to researchers in the drug development space for life science companies.

The company has raised US$109 million to date, according to Crunchbase, including an investment from Deerfield Management, and existing investors back in October. The amount of the deal was not disclosed.

COTA used the funds to further expand its real-world data platform and services to drive more efficient and inclusive drug development.

Why real-world data is a market to watch

Growing use of real-world data coincides with another big trend—a technology-driven clinical trials space that looks to disrupt the antiquated clinical trial model. Startups like Medable and Science 37 are pioneering decentralized, or virtual, clinical trials with the aim of accelerating clinical research and the development of new therapies.

Now, big retailers like CVS and Walgreens are entering the market as they look to carve out a bigger piece of the nearly US$4 trillion healthcare industry.

In the last two years, CVS launched clinical trial services, Walgreens followed suit with its own clinical trials business and Walmart rolled out a research institute aimed at more diverse clinical trial participation.

Amazon also is reportedly collaborating on clinical research for cancer vaccines, according to Insider, and, most recently, Kroger Health, the healthcare division of the large grocery chain, launched a clinical trial site network.

These efforts seem to be bearing fruit. Walgreens now has five contracts with drug manufacturers, including a major partnership with Prothena to identify and recruit patients for the biotech company’s Alzheimer’s disease drug candidate. Kroger plans to conduct clinical trials at select Kroger pharmacies and its Little Clinics, and the grocer is currently partnering with Persephone Biosciences to recruit patients for its first clinical trial.

Pharmacy retailers like Walgreens, CVS and Kroger Health have staked their claim that they can use their community reach to increase patient enrollment and improve the clinical trials process by leveraging their patient data, technology assets and retail locations.

And as big retailers push into the clinical trials space, Sasu believes the real-world data market will be one to watch.

“You can imagine that with these retailers’ offering of primary care and clinical trials if they were able to curate their patient data, and on top of this, if they were doing genetic screening, specifically in oncology patients, you can see how having all of this in one place, how incredibly powerful it would be to solve disease,” she said.

Sasu sees an opportunity for big retailers to build out their capabilities around data and analytics to offer more personalized care and treatment for patients.

“So, they have primary care and that’s great, that solves the convenience issue by having it closer to patients’ homes, but having an understanding of the data as well and going deeper into the genetics is the next step,” she noted. “If you have the data, and if you’re able to perform this genetic testing, you could do it all. And you could do it at the click of a button. It would just be an amazing way to bring the entire ecosystem together and to understand the holistic journey of the patient, your understanding of their biology and then you can tailor the response to whatever it is that’s ailing that person. It’s no longer going to be a guessing game.”

And this, in turn, spells out big opportunities for real-world data and genomics data companies.

“I think companies like COTA and companies like Genetic Testing Cooperative are going to become big players. Being able to curate, transform and abstract the data is going to be key to understanding the patient and also being able to pull in whatever genetic test is being done,” Sasu said.

She added, “If I’m a CVS or Walgreens, I’m going look to companies who do this for a living, to bring them in to do this for me at the click of a button.”

The integration of genomics data combined with labs and EHR data also will enable primary care players to offer more precise preventive care.

“These retail pharmacies can then think about, ‘What if I start diving into specialty care? What if I offer a genetic panel that is just standard of care at my organization?’ I’m going to be able to compete now on thousands of sites at scale and be able to treat my patients better,” Sasu said. “I think retail pharmacies have a huge opportunity here.”