PPD and Science 37 Announce an Innovative Collaboration

PPD Digital would be able to use Science 37’s configurable, SaaS-based DCT technology platform to design and implement Remote e-consent, eCOA, eSource, and fully decentralized trials result of their successful two-year collaboration under Science 37’s CRO Certified program.

FREMONT, CA: PPD, a leading global contract research organization (CRO), and Science 37, the creator of the Decentralized Clinical Trial Operating System (DCT OS), announced a groundbreaking partnership under which PPD would be fully equipped to design, develop, test, enforce, and conduct digital trials using Science 37’s DCT SaaS-based technology framework.

PPD Digital would be able to use Science 37’s configurable, SaaS-based DCT technology platform to design and implement Remote e-consent, eCOA, eSource, and fully decentralized trials result of their successful two-year collaboration under Science 37’s CRO Certified program. This will improve the company’s efficiency and effectiveness in delivering studies for a variety of clients.

“Our success with Science 37 has positioned us well to implement and incorporate its technology platform into our clinical trial services model, which is on course with our efforts to maintain a leadership position in the global transition toward decentralized clinical trials,” said Niklas Morton, senior vice president, PPD Digital. “Our overall DCT strategy is to offer customers more trial delivery options, particularly in a stepwise fashion where the customer can experience both traditional and digital approaches to sites and patients in the same study. Through our evolving collaboration, we will be able to use the Science 37 platform to provide our customers with a best-in-class service and delivery model.”

PPD Digital offers decentralized trial solutions that maximize patient access and boost the patient experience, resulting in time savings and improved data quality that can help shorten implementation timelines.

These programs dramatically reduce patient burden, primarily by fewer site visits, while providing clients with a more significant regional scope through reduced dependency on sites, more timely data access, increased quality and accuracy, and improved patient involvement.

“Science 37 intends to be the operating system to enable all decentralized clinical trials,” said Steve Geffon, chief commercial officer, Science 37. “By enabling PPD Digital to utilize our innovative platform, were able to extend our reach and enable decentralization on more trials than ever before. Our new SaaS-based technology makes it easy to deploy Remote eConsent, eCOA, eSource and fully decentralized trials, even when it is not part of the complete Science 37 DCT Operating System, which includes patient communities, telemedicine investigators, mobile nurses, remote coordinators and connected devices.”

Information Services Group (ISG), a leading global technology research and advisory company, honored PPD earlier this month for industry leadership in digital and decentralized clinical trial solutions. PPD’s clinical growth and patient experience solutions were named an ISG Provider Lens Leader by ISG for the CRO’s digital transformation services.

PPD led Science 37’s series D funding round in 2019 and collaborated to provide virtual sites to supplement conventional brick-and-mortar sites. This early investment has facilitated PPD to solution protocol development and protocol adjustment processes to enable DCT design flexibility; optimize the study startup process and workflow to guarantee faster site activation timelines; utilize the PPD business Accelerated Enrollment Solutions to maximize patient recruitment potential, and incorporate data acquisition at sites with PPD’s data management and Preclarus platform to warrant real data access across all sites.