Established in 1977, Emmes is a global, full-service clinical research organization (CRO) committed to advancing public health and fostering biopharmaceutical innovation. With a rich history marked by over 2000 clinical studies, Emmes boasts expertise across several therapeutic areas, with a specific focus on cell and gene therapy, vaccines, ophthalmology, neuroscience, and rare diseases.
“We are a science-driven, statistics-founded organization,” says Peter Ronco, Emmes Chief Executive Officer, explaining that while the company is based in the US and proud of its history supporting the NIH, the last ten years have been a period of significant expansion. As a result, Emmes now runs operations in close to 70 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia and runs global registrational programs for many biopharma clients.
The perfect combination
We are witnessing the golden age of biology where award winning research and disease understanding is translating to life saving therapies in years rather than decades. However, the clinical research infrastructure within the US, and worldwide, needs to rapidly modernise to deliver these life changing treatments to patients faster. Emmes’ newly launched technology and AI unit, Veridix AI, is set to focus on using artificial intelligence-based technology to optimise clinical research.
This has been a significant milestone, says Peter Ronco. “The Emmes Group now covers two sister companies: Emmes, a highly experienced CRO that has had 47 years of experience helping to address the most important health crises of our lifetime, and Veridix AI, a tech and AI-focused business that is able to deliver innovation at scale.”
This combination provides Emmes Group with a significant advantage, affirms Ronco, who joined Emmes in mid-2023. A global pharmaceutical executive with experience in a number of R&D leadership positions over more than two decades, he clearly saw how technology will change the sector.
“What attracted me to this role was, among other things, the strong, high-quality foundation of Emmes, and the opportunity to do something different – to challenge how clinical development is designed and operationalised using artificial intelligence and technology platforms.”
“With Veridix AI we have the opportunity to approach clinical development problems with the latest technology in ways that other companies have been unwilling or unable to try. Given the resource constraints, both large and small pharmaceutical companies are excited to see how clinical development can be done faster and cheaper, while also improving patients engagement.”
Expanded capability
Emmes has always taken pride in its pivotal role in public health advancement, collaborating with biopharmaceutical companies, government entities, non-profit organisations, and academic institutions, and its research has contributed significantly to impacting millions of patients globally.
Its operation has expanded significantly over the last decade (with 7 acquisitions completed in the last three years) and Peter Ronco points out that two of Emmes’ latest acquisitions clearly demonstrate the Emmes story and its strategy of growing both its medical and technological capabilities.
In 2023, Emmes was joined by Essex Management, a specialist in bioinformatics and health information technology with extensive experience in developing and managing complex health and biomedical information programmes for clients in the federal government. The two companies already shared a number of clients, including the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Essex’s expertise further enhances Emmes’ reputation as a data-forward, full-service clinical research partner.
In mid-2023 Emmes completed its most recent acquisition, of Panama-based VaxTRIALS, a provider of innovative solutions in managing and monitoring vaccine clinical trial activities across Latin America. This acquisition extends the Emmes network into this important market, bringing new biopharmaceutical and public-private partnership clients into the fold, and reinforces Emmes’ focus on vaccines and infectious diseases, augmenting its expertise in its core therapeutics areas.
Fast-paced development
Ronco points out that Emmes is now the perfect size – big enough to run global registrational programs but small enough to be nimble, with the ability to evolve quickly and be extremely responsive to client needs. As such, the company is ready for its next stage of development.
The new Veridix AI business unit is accelerating adoption of technology and generative AI into all aspects of clinical trials through the use of its proprietary Clinical Gen AI engine. Veridix AI is the industry’s first fully unified platform, built using native cloud services to support traditional, decentralised, and hybrid trials. This enables Emmes to deliver programs faster, better, and cheaper for commercial biopharma customers through end-to-end use of technology.
“The underlying biology platforms continue to evolve rapidly. We are lucky to be running clinical development in an age of true science innovation. With an exponentially growing volume of biological data, and technology platforms now capable of handling these massive amounts of data, the prospect of embedding AI models within clinical research is now within our grasp.”
Still, the pace may be a challenge for many. “The expanded role of patients took a huge step forward during COVID and there is no going back. The combination of the biology advances, the data explosion, the patient advocacy – is putting pressure on the clinical development infrastructure, which is creaking and ready for innovation.”
Looking ahead
There is another factor that further accentuates the challenge of changing clinical development – the workforce. But this is something Peter Ronco is well aware of. “My job as CEO is to engage and motivate people whose jobs are changing with the technology advances.”
“We need data managers who can use AI algorithms to build databases. We need site monitors who can use true innovative risk-based monitoring algorithms to change how they are reviewing data at the site. We need project managers who are very adept at modelling clinical trial timelines. We have amazingly talented people in our company and my job is to grow and inspire them because every role will be changed by the infusion of technology and data science to meet the increasingly complex scientific challenges.”
