ORPH.L Share News (ORPH)

(Sharecast News) - Europe-focussed rare and orphan drug consulting services platform provider Open Orphan has signed a new strategic collaboration agreement with Empiric Logic, it announced on Tuesday, to build on the earlier work it had performed, and complete the build out of its 'Health Data' platform as Europe's first rare disease, advocacy-led genomic database.
The AIM-traded firm said Empiric Logic - a managed software service company which provides software to the life sciences, pharmaceuticals, pharma services and biotechnology sectors - would incorporate its propriety, privacy preserving, and artificial intelligence-enabled software into Open Orphan's Health Data platform, to aid the collection and management capabilities of the software.

It said the collaboration was the final stage in the completion of its Genomic Health Data platform, and would speed up its launch.

The platform built on the genomic analysis, database architecture know-how and prior professional experience between the founders of Empiric Logic and Open Orphan's chief commercial officer Maurice Treacy.

"This is an exciting step towards the completion of our genomic Health Data platform, and we are delighted to have Empiric on board to help us quickly and securely become one of the largest databases of rare disease patients in Europe," said Open Orphan chief executive officer Cathal Friel.

Gareth O'Sullivan, CEO at Empiric Logic, added that his company was "delighted" to be supporting the Open Orphan team with the final steps of preparing the Genomic Health Data platform to accept its first data.

"As part of the rollout of the Open Orphan database, it will be making substantial use of our artificial intelligence capabilities, such as for identification of rare-disease genetic mutations, but also for the potential identification of patients for clinical trials going forward," O'Sullivan explained.