Big pharma, big data: Why drugmakers want your health records

FILE PHOTO: A surgery nurse is seen beside the heart beat monitor in the operating theatre of the Unfallkrankenhaus Berlin (UKB) hospital in Berlin, Germany February 29, 2008. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch /File Photo

LONDON: Drugmakers are racing to scoop up patient health records and strike deals with technology companies as big data analytics start to unlock a trove of information about how medicines perform in the real world. 

Studying such real-world evidence offers manufacturers a powerful tool to prove the value of their drugs – something Roche aims to leverage, for example, with last month's US$2bil (RM7.81bil) purchase of Flatiron Health.