France-based Ariana Pharma, a provider of “non-statistical” clinical data analysis technology to the pharmaceutical industry, has expanded its global operations by establishing a permanent U.S. office in Cambridge, Mass., to service growing demand for its powerful data analytics technology KEM.  

“The U.S. pharma and biotech markets tend to be early technology adopters, and are searching for better data analytics tools to advance personalized medicine using all the new biomarker, genomic, proteomic and metabolomic data now being generated,” said Dr. Mohammad Afshar, president and CEO of Ariana Pharma. “Our KEM technology is the only proven approach that can simultaneously analyze all these variables and pull out patient responder sub-groups, optimize biomarker signatures and remove bias from clinical trials.”

KEM (Knowledge Extraction and Management) is an association rules-based, non-statistical, analytical technology that finds patient responder sub-populations and biomarker signatures that statistical methods are unable to detect. KEM optimizes clinical trial inclusion/exclusion criteria thereby lowering the number of patients needed to reach clinical endpoints and saving sponsors both time and cash.
 
In conjunction with the opening, Ariana appointed James M. Shanahan as vice president of business development. Shanahan co-founded and is a current board member of SynDevRx, an oncology-focused biotech company, and also co-founded JAM Technologies where he served as vice president of corporate development. He brings 15 years business development and marketing experience to Ariana.