Less than a year after announcing the world’s first digital biomarker for lung fibrosis, Qureight has announced a multi-year strategic research collaboration with AstraZeneca.
The agreement with the biopharmaceutical giant will allow AstraZeneca to use Qureight’s proprietary platform and AI technology to conduct research across a range of complex lung diseases, leveraging imaging data analytics and using sophisticated AI models to better understand how patients with rare and complex lung diseases could respond to novel drugs.
Targets include complex lung diseases, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and pulmonary hypertension.
Qureight was founded in 2018 by Dr Muhunthan Thillai, a lung specialist at Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, and chief scientific officer Dr Alessandro Ruggiero, who is also a radiology consultant in the city.
The company, based at Nine Hills Road, uses medical data analytics to transform outcomes for people with complex diseases. Its proprietary digital infrastructure houses and curates multiple types of data for powerful algorithmic analysis, the results of which can be used to direct complex disease drug development and to evaluate the efficacy of existing treatments.
Qureight’s cloud-based platform analyses CT scans, blood biomarkers and clinical results from patients with a range of complex lung and heart conditions. The technology creates models with both real world and clinical trial data, so researchers can better understand how patients could respond to novel treatments.
The new co-working activity will allow AstraZeneca to use Qureight’s proprietary platform and AI technology to conduct research across a range of complex lung diseases.
Prof Maria Belvisi, senior VP and head of research and early development, respiratory & immunology, biopharmaceuticals R&D AstraZeneca, said: “The collaboration with Qureight supports AstraZeneca’s aim to harness data and technology enabling our scientists to push the boundaries of science and deliver life-changing medicines to patients. Qureight’s AI technology allows us to investigate outcomes in multiple respiratory diseases, helping us to create new endpoints and improve patient selection for clinical trials in diseases such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.”
Dr Muhunthan Thillai, co-founder and CEO of Qureight, said: “The multi-year collaboration announced today is an important validation of our technology stack and builds on our existing partnership with AstraZeneca, a leader in respiratory care. We look forward to working closely with AstraZeneca in analysing data from patients with the fibrotic scarring lung disease IPF and other complex conditions.
“In May 2023, at the American Thoracic Society meeting in Washington DC, Qureight presented research findings jointly with AstraZeneca.
“These showed how image-based AI models could be integrated with clinical models to capture data at a single time point in the IPF patient journey and predict 12-month mortality signals with strong accuracy. Qureight has previously used its technology in Phase 2 clinical trials to differentiate between patients on a drug and placebo arm in the same disease.”
