On October 12, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a joint undertaking of the European Union and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), announced the launch of OPTIMA (Optimal Treatment for Patients with Solid Tumours in Europe Through Artificial Intelligence). This is the first time that an interoperable platform of this type has been created, with the goal of using data from 200 million people to securely gather in the same place large-scale evidence relating to prostate, breast and lung cancers. OPTIMA brings together 36 partners from across 13 countries. 

This platform will house datasets, analytic tools, learning tools, AI algorithms, and electronic tools to help clinicians make personalized care decisions for patients with solid tumours. Owkin is one of the French companies involved in this unique initiative. Their solutions make use of artificial intelligence to help medical researchers, with the aim of speeding up the discovery of new treatments and, also, contributing to a personalized care protocol.

“Federated access to a vast network of European data providers is the key to help answer the highest priority research questions in prostate, breast and lung cancer, especially where current existing evidence underpinning clinical practice guidelines is sometimes weak,” Mathieu Galtier, Chief Product Officer, Owkin.

The OPTIMA consortium consists of 36 multidisciplinary private and public stakeholders in the clinical, academic, patient, regulatory, data science, legal, ethical, and pharmaceutical fields.

It is co-directed by Professor James N’Dow of the European Association of Urology and the University of Aberdeen’s Academic Urology Unit and Dr Hagen Krüger, Medical Director of the Oncology Division of Pfizer Germany.