Big Tech takes a step forward as Verily unveils Study Watch

Verily Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, has unveiled a new smartwatch for clinical research that can capture round-the-clock health data for large-scale and long-term studies. Although the investigational device, called the Verily Study Watch, is not available for sale, Dutch researchers will use the health-tracking watch in a multi-year Parkinson’s disease study that will begin enrolling patients in July. In addition, Verily launched a four-year observational study last week with Duke University School of Medicine and Stanford Medicine that will use the Study Watch to track daily health data from some 10,000 volunteers.

Accelovance launches HERO to hone in on early phase cancer trials

Cancer is the therapeutic target of more than half of all clinical trials now, and yet, said Accelovance President and CEO Steve Trevisan, small companies trying to launch early phase trials on their promising young compounds in oncology have no good place to turn for quality handholding. That’s why the CRO Accelovance has launched HERO (Helping Early Research in Oncology), an initiative that Trevisan said is tightly tailored to the needs of small pharma companies and biotech firms working on the very early stages of cancer trials.

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