Health technology company PicnicHealth, pharma giant Roche and its subsidiary Genentech are expanding their partnership globally to speed up neurological disease research through investments in real-world data.

PicnicHealth allows patients to see their health history and contribute their de-identified medical data to clinical research. 

Roche will leverage PicnicHealth's newest real-world datasets for Alzheimer’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease-related dementias and myasthenia gravis, a chronic autoimmune disorder resulting in weakness of the skeletal muscles.

The datasets will be used in Roche's pan-neuroscience patient research study, providing information on unmet needs and challenges patients face with neurological diseases. 

“We're delighted to continue our long-term partnership with Roche and Genentech as we leverage our expertise in working with patients to develop data while enabling researchers to better understand disease progression and staging and the holistic impact a neurological disease has on a patient and his or her care team,” Dr. Dan Drozd, chief medical officer at PicnicHealth, said in a statement. 

THE LARGER TREND 

Last year, PicnicHealth raised $60 million in Series C funding, two years after it scored $35 million in equity financing.

Last year, the data company announced a partnership with global biopharmaceutical company Bristol Myers Squibb to combine datasets to understand patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy better.  

Earlier this month, PicnicHealth announced it would partner with CureDuchenne, a global nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, to bolster the company's real-world evidence generation for its platform CureDuchenne Link.