Verana Health and Janssen Enter Real-World Data and Data Science Collaboration

Verana Health has entered into a research collaboration with Janssen Research & Development, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, that focuses on curating real-world data and driving data science applications in ophthalmology, as well as urology. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Last year, MedCity News broke down how Verana changed from a tele-ophthalmology start-up to a data analytics company, and closed a $100 million funding round led by GV, formerly Google Ventures.

Roots in Ophthalmology
Verana started in 2017 as a partnership with the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) to analyze data from the AAO-sponsored IRIS (Intelligent Research in Sight) Registry, the largest specialty-based clinical data registry in medicine. Since then Verana has entered into similar arrangements with the American Academy of Neurology and the American Urological Association.

“Verana works with many life science companies, in and outside of ophthalmology, and will continue to work with existing and future customers to deepen the understanding of diseases, inform clinical study design, and enhance the execution of clinical trials,” said Hylton Kalvaria, SVP, commercial and strategic partnerships at Verana.

How Janssen Collaboration Will Work
The collaboration with Janssen will transform real-world data into organized, actionable datasets. It supports Verana’s mission to further enhance the utilization of real-world evidence and specialized data science to accelerate clinical research and development, with the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes.

“Specifically in ophthalmology, Verana will use real-world data from the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s IRIS Registry to help characterize baseline patient attributes, disease progression, and treatment-based outcomes in diabetic macular edema research that is currently limited in this population,” Kalvaria said. Diabetic macular edema is a complication of diabetes that impacts 750,000 Americans.

Verana uses de-identified data from patient registries, along with software that gives physicians a view of how their practice is performing, and tools that can track factors that lead to better patient outcomes.