Genentech Gains Access to Online Patient Network

Genentech has inked a five-year agreement with PatientsLikeMe to explore ways the global online network can be used to enhance understanding of patients’ real-world experiences with disease and treatment.

While the Roche subsidiary will have access to all conditions covered in the database, it will focus mainly on oncology, PatientsLikeMe Co-founder and President Ben Heywood told Drug Daily Bulletin.

Under terms of the deal, Genentech will be able to access deidentified individual and aggregate-level patient data on treatment, symptoms, evaluations and demographics. This will enable the drugmaker to better focus efforts to evaluate and develop new medical evidence, measures and standards of health, Heywood said. Access to the clinical trial awareness tool is also included in the deal.

Approximately 59 percent of Genentech’s pipeline consists of oncology compounds. PatientsLikeMe’s oncology community includes patients with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and lung, liver, breast, testicular, prostate and pancreatic cancers. — Lena Freund

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