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Officials at Velsera say that the company has expanded the capabilities of its Global Data Network (GDN), which they describe as a federated, secure data ecosystem that allows life sciences organizations to access and activate real-world, longitudinal clinicogenomic data at scale.
Spanning more than 175 million patient records across 50+ global data providers, Velsera’s GDN can bridge previously siloed data sources, including EMR, genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, pathology, and radiology, to power faster and more efficient drug discovery and development, according to Jamie Littlejohns, CEO.
“Traditional data acquisition can take years—time the industry simply doesn’t have,” says Littlejohns. “Healthcare produces more data than any other industry, and its impact on humanity is unmatched. Yet, an astonishing 97% of healthcare data goes unused, and over 70% of pharma research data searches end in failure. There’s a clear need for a better way to seamlessly connect data with researchers.
“The GDN enables pharma and biotech teams to move from data request to actionable insights in a matter of weeks—not years—while ensuring security, compliance, and scientific rigor.”
Unlike centralized models, continues Littlejohns, Velsera’s federated technology enables compliant access to sensitive datasets while keeping data within the control of its source institutions. The result is secure, on-demand access to diverse, high-quality datasets without compromising patient privacy or violating regulatory frameworks like GDPR and HIPAA, he adds.
Approximately 40% of the data originates outside the U.S., with growing representation from Europe, Asia, and Latin America, offering global relevance across all major therapeutic areas, with an emphasis on oncology, immunology, neurology, and cardiometabolic diseases, points out Littlejohns.
Fit-for-purpose data
The GDN is purpose-built to address pharma’s some of R&D’s challenges, including:
• Target and biomarker discovery
• Patient stratification and clinical trial optimization
• Label and indication expansion
• Predictive model development and AI/ML training
• Companion diagnostic and assay development
With 60% of engagements leveraging clinical and omics data, the GDN supports a wide range of high-impact use cases across research and development, notes Littlejohns, adding that these include real-world patient cohorts built from whole exome sequencing (WES), whole genome sequencing (WGS), RNA-seq, and increasingly, proteomics–paired with curated longitudinal clinical records.
Velsera’s team of data scientists and domain specialists works alongside clients to define, source, and harmonize the right datasets. This customer-centric model has led to 80% of data requests being fulfilled within weeks, drastically accelerating time-to-insight for biopharma partners, says Littlejohns.
To reduce barriers and enable rapid hypothesis validation, Velsera offers flexible engagement models, from multi-year collaborations to short-term access.
“We’re not just offering data, we’re offering the infrastructure and expertise to make that data actionable,” says Jamie. “And that’s what today’s R&D teams need most.”
