The Power of Clinical Collaborations in Hematology

Amy and Sally, it’s great to talk with you both and I’m excited to discuss our team’s recent strategic collaborations. How are clinical collaborations helping us to accelerate the development of potential new treatments in hematology?

Amy Copeland: Of course! It’s great to chat, Anas. One of our priorities is building collaborations with clinical sites that are leading the delivery of trials in hematology. For example, we are tapping into AstraZeneca’s oncology Partners of Choice (PoC) and Partners in Care Networks (PiCN) and we’ve also established a dedicated Haematology Clinical Partnerships group. Through these initiatives, we’re partnering with leading institutes and clinical sites that have expertise across lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, multiple myeloma and acute leukemia.

Sally Sambrook: Thanks for having me, too, Anas! From a clinical operations perspective, establishing stronger relationships with leading cancer centers is improving our understanding of their study preferences, internal processes and needs, as well as establishing dedicated local points of contact. This allows us to streamline the process of setting up new trials and enrolling patients, ultimately speeding up the journey from research to global patient access.

Really interesting! To expand more on our partnerships with cancer centers, how are these relationships accelerating the development of potential new therapies?

Amy: These partnerships allow us to provide participating international cancer centers and academic institutions early insights into our pipeline, enabling them to make more strategic choices based on their specific needs and patient populations. By starting this process early, partners can open their clinical sites earlier and enroll patients faster, to accelerate the evaluation of investigational drugs and inform ongoing research.

It’s great to hear how these partnerships can potentially shorten the time it takes to conduct trials, and how we’re able to apply our learnings in real time. During the past few years, we’ve explored and fostered partnerships in China and Japan. Can you elaborate on how these collaborations may help bring potentially innovative oncology treatments to patients globally?

Sally: We’re expanding our reach globally, which is very exciting, and recently sites in both Japan and China have joined us in escalating recruitment for a new first-in-human study in hematology. Previously these countries would join much later in the development program, but earlier integration into our clinical plans is accelerating the development of potential new therapies.

Amy: Adding on to Sally’s point, we are excited to be collaborating more with investigators and adding new sites in these countries to our Haematology Clinical Partnerships group. Partnering with Japan, China and other Asian countries allows us to learn more about the unique needs of their patient populations, identify how we can address them and develop therapies with the potential to make a difference.

I share the same excitement as the team and am looking forward to seeing how our partnerships in Asia can help more patients. As we know, AI and data analytics are also top of mind in the field. What role do cutting-edge technologies play in our clinical partnerships, and how are these tools enhancing patient outcomes?

Amy: With the increased use of electronic medical records and data capture, along with automated systems, we’re able to quickly determine where hematology studies are being conducted and where specific patent populations exist. This helps us identify the sites that are most important to collaborate with to address unmet needs in specific areas. We’re also able to use advanced data analytics to identify sites with patients who may benefit most from our novel pipeline and helps us to represent diverse populations in our studies. This provides more patients access to potentially groundbreaking therapies and accelerates drug development through faster enrollment and decision making in the early stages of launching a trial.

Looking ahead, what are some key trends that may influence future directions for our clinical collaborations, and how do you envision them meeting the needs of patients worldwide?

Sally: I personally would like to eventually eliminate the need to do feasibility studies for new clinical research. This may be possible through the innovation we’re driving from the deep relationships with our global partners. These partnerships are key to delivering consistent quality faster and bringing potentially life-changing therapies to patients around the world. And advances in electronic medical records are enabling more robust data collection and transfer, so there’s less room for human error and added efficiency, reducing the need for duplicated effort by sites and research staff.

Amy: I agree with Sally! Through these global partnerships, we are getting better at determining where the most crucial patient needs are in select countries and how we can design future treatments to address them, allowing partner sites to influence development. We also know that our partnerships will provide learning opportunities to engage with investigators in communities that may not have the same level of access to hematology studies, and eventually provide opportunities for them to participate. The more we can strengthen our relationships with partners and become familiar with their needs, the more we’re able to accelerate timelines to get more treatments to more patients in less time.

Thank you both for taking the time to discuss the exciting partnerships and clinical advancements underway!