Deloitte’s ConvergeHealth platform will link to Vineti to support personalized medicine

Saying that “today, the science is ahead of the information delivery systems,” Brett Davis, ConvergeHealth GM and principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, is looking forward to creating linkages between his company’s Patient Connect platform, and the supply- and value-chain management capabilities of Vineti, an IT company that came out of the Mayo Clinic a few years ago. Vineti’s “supply chain orchestration” product tracks cellular and genetic therapies (CGTs) from the clinical to commercial stage, including reimbursement details and post-treatment followup. The IT system was part of Gilead’s (then, Kite Pharma’s) successful FDA application for Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), approved last year.

As Davis sees it, Patient Connect enables “digital personalization” of patient interactions, which can be helpful both at the front end of a therapy (identifying suitable patients) and for post-treatment followup. (Patient Connect is currently in use for a variety of specialty pharmaceutical products, and in 16 countries.) Vineti’s system coordinates the activities where patient’s cells are extracted, the back-and-forth transport to a cell processing center, and the re-infusion to the patient.

“Biopharma companies are focused on develop the therapy; it’s not a core competency to develop these IT systems as well,” he says. The end-to-end (or, as they say in the CGT field, “vein to vein”) therapy processes are being commercialized with various forms of value-based contracting (in which the therapy’s price is tied to the patient outcome); these IT systems will be the platform for carrying out those contracts.

9/11 update: Just after the Deloitte-Vineti announcement, Vineti announced a similar partnership with World Courier, the specialty-courier business owned by AmerisourceBergen. In this case, Vineti will not only link to data-collection and -analysis systems offered by World Courier, but also with the physical movement of CGTs, a business that World Courier has taken a leadership position in, with shipments flowing through its global network of more than 140 offices worldwide.

"Offering Vineti's digital platform of record bolsters the options available within our global logistics platform, offering a wider choice for cell and gene therapy developers to trace, orchestrate and scale their products,” said Sam Herbert, president of World Courier.