German pharma company Merck KGaA and Silicon Valley data analytics firm Palantir Technologies are forming a joint research venture called Syntropy meant to use the expertise of the two organizations to advance cancer research.
Based in Boston, Massachusetts the company will offer cancer data analytics tools to healthcare organizations including academic medical centers, biotech companies and researchers.
The founding idea behind the partnership is to break down the silos that exist between biomedical data in order to accelerate the pace of research advancements.
Underpinning Syntopy’s technology is Palantir’s Foundry platform which allows users to structure and analyze data from disparate sources while also safeguarding data ownership. Syntropy is also planning to develop technology to allow researchers to safely and transparently share data.
Big pharma companies have made major acquisitions and investments in the data analytics space over the past year including Roche’s $1.9 billion purchase of New York-based oncology data company Flatiron Health and $2.4 billion purchase of genomic profiling company Foundation Medicine.
“The success of science hinges on the ability to act on insights,” Merck KGaA Chairman and CEO Stefan Oschmann, said in a statement. “We expect Syntropy to facilitate collaboration within the global scientific community, in order to drive breakthrough innovation in cancer research.”
Palantir Technologies was founded in 2003 by a group of technology entrepreneurs including investor and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. The company provides data analytics software to organizations ranging from government intelligence agencies to financial services firms and is well-known for helping the U.S. Government track down Osama Bin Laden.
Palantir signed on Merck as a client last year, initially to help speed up cancer therapy development through their collaborative analytics platform.
“Unlocking the power of scientific data is critical to advancing the fight against cancer,” Palantir CEO Alexander Karp said in a statement.“Syntropy aims to help researchers collaborate securely to realize the value of this data, driving discoveries that will deliver better treatments to patients faster.”
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