PharmaLex Group – the provider of specialised services for the pharma, biotech and medtech industries – has announced a merger with UK pharma services consultancy, NeoHealthHub (NHH).

The agreement will be an important step in building a pan-European market access practice covering major markets, including the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the Nordics.

Founded in 2013, NHH supports its customers by offering innovative and comprehensive market access, data and capability development solutions and healthcare brand life cycle through its four business units – NeoNavitas, NeoN, NeoSypher and NeoOptima.

NHH has its headquarters in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, employing individuals who provide their expertise through customised solutions and understanding differing processes across the entire UK healthcare system.

“The merger is a good strategic fit for NHH because we share similar values and corporate culture with PharmaLex, built on an entrepreneurial spirit,” reflected NHH chief executive officer, Simon Doyle. “Both our organisations support a model of thinking global but acting local, which for us means responding to the unique and complex needs of the pharmaceutical and healthcare marketplace.

“We have created an organisation and structure that allows us to operate in a truly agile way, maximising opportunities as they emerge. Through the merger, we will be able to build on those opportunities and offer extended services and expertise to our clients, while further expanding the client base,” he added.

Brainomix – the AI-powered medtech solutions company – has announced its collaboration with the National Consortium of Intelligent Medical Imaging (NCIMI) and three selected NHS sites on a project to optimise and validate its automated cancer tracking tool, e-ACT.

e-ACT measures the size of lung cancer tumours and detects changes in tumour size, indicating treatment response and disease progression. The collaboration will evaluate how automated assessment using e-ACT compares with the observations of medical specialists.

Preliminary data has shown that e-ACT is at least as good as specialist doctors in measuring the size of lung cancer tumours at a single time point. This project will have NHS sites in Truro, Bath and Leeds, allowing Brainomix to develop e-ACT and demonstrate the potential impact that technology has to improve care of patients with cancer.

The 12-month study will include CT (CAT) scans and clinical data from 200 patients with confirmed lung cancer on systematic therapy.

The study team will then evaluate how automated assessment of disease progression and treatment response using e-ACT compares to radiologist analysis.

The research will also include descriptive analysis of tumour dynamics using e-ACT in a representative NHS cohort.

This new project also builds on a previous successful collaboration between NCIMI and Brainomix in the stroke space.