The collaboration will initially focus on projects related to heart failure, coronary and vascular disease, and atrial fibrillation.
New answers for patients with a range of heart conditions will soon be uncovered as part of a new collaboration between the DCRI and Bayer.
The collaboration will include ongoing projects in three broad disease areas—heart failure, coronary and vascular disease, and atrial fibrillation—in an effort to better understand these conditions and develop potential treatments.
“This partnership holds great promise,” said Michael Felker, MD, who is leading the DCRI side of the collaboration. “The DCRI can contribute thought leadership and access to data, while Bayer has a deep and growing pipeline of drug development in these areas. We’re looking forward to working with Bayer on conditions in which we have a long track record of research that has an impact on the health of patients.”
The projects included in the collaboration will be led by various faculty and operational members of the DCRI depending on the expertise required for each study. The fact that all of the projects will be a part of the same structure established by the alliance will result in continuity between the projects, more efficient study start-up, and may even lead to synergies among different studies, Felker said.
The projects will also draw on different data sources that the DCRI has access to, from molecular data to data from PCORnet®, the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network. A joint steering committee comprising representatives from both the DCRI and Bayer has been established to ensure the different workstreams of the collaboration are conducted in parallel.
“We are committed to further improve treatment options for patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases,” said Richard Nkulikiyinka, who is leading the Bayer side of the collaboration. “Access to data and growing analytic capacity make it possible to analyze a variety of information together for more medical knowledge and improved guidance regarding therapy selections, helping us to understand how certain patient populations respond to different types of medication before starting therapy, thus improving efficacy.”