| | july 201442CIOReview

The Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences sector is going through a positive metamorphosis due to the confluence of the biological science and information technology. The industry is changing its game plan by dropping old legacy systems and adapting newer technologies. This gradual transformation is characterized by simplified operating environments and access to real-time information through multiple channels. The changing customer demographics and the omniscient internet and mobility are transforming commercial operations; the way customers interact and collaborate. Technology solutions are helping organizations make digital shift seamless and deliver results with a mix of analytics, cross-channel interaction, and customized messaging. This has resulted in pharmaceutical companies exploring for new strategies and innovations.

There is also a gradual shift in the economic flow chart, depicting the ingress of many unique challenges arising from the macro-economic, demographic and industry-specific factors. Today, products are losing patents due to shortened pipelines and tight deadline issues. There is an increased pressure on pharmaceutical industry to curtail the cost of R&D, in order to bring products faster into market amidst heightened government regulations. Expectations are also rising, with patients given a higher stake in health management decisions and treatment

regimes. Many consulting companies are assisting the Pharmaceutical sector in order to strike the right balance when it comes to treating these constantly aggravating issues. These companies act as the propeller to help their clients approach the right technology markets by making efficient business decisions and cost models, with a healthy dose of enterprise-wide innovations. As the search for efficiency continues, pharma companies are exploring for newer options in terms of technological solutions and consultant services for externalization, collaboration and consumerization to drive the future R&D.

In this edition of CIO Review, we bring to you “20 Most Promising Solution and Consulting providers to Pharma and Life Science 2014”, featuring the best vendors and consultants providing technology and services to the Pharmaceutical and Life Science industry. The companies featured have showcased extensive business process knowledge, in-depth integrated and innovative strategies combined with talent base across locations.

A distinguished panel comprising of CEOs, CIOs, VCs and analysts including the CIO Review editorial board have selected the top companies that are at the forefront of tackling challenges in the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences market in the U.S.

CIOREVIEW.COMJULY - 2014PhaRMa and LIfE SCIEnCES TEChnOLOGY SPECIaL

T h e N a v i g a t o r f o r E n t e r p r i s e S o l u t i o n s

Company:Strand Genomics Inc

Discription:Offers decision support products and services for physicians, biologists, chemists and toxicologists

Key Person:Vijay Chandru, Ph.D,Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO

Website:www.strandgenomics.com

Christo JacobManaging Editor

Strand Genomics Increcognized by magazine as

Editor-in-ChiefPradeep Shankar

An annual listing of the top companies that are in the forefront of tackling challenges in the Pharma & Life Sciences sector and impacting the marketplace

20 Most Promising Tech Solution Providers to Pharma and Life Sciences Industry

| | july 201443CIOReview| | july 201454CIOReview

The implications of the world’s largest collaborative biological project in the year 2000—the Human Genome Project-combined with the Big Data revolution in the

medical sciences holds out tremendous promise for human health. Recognizing the imminent need for the next generation of bioinformatics and genomics tools, four academic entrepreneurs from the prestigious Indian Institute of Science co-founded Strand Genomics Inc. (Strand). “Our focus is on personalized clinical genomics and molecular diagnostics. To address the grand challenge of the “$1000 genome and million dollar interpretation”, we have developed a clinical genomics interpretation and reporting platform, StrandOmics,” says Vijay Chandru, Ph.D, Co-founder, Chairman and CEO, Strand.

The StrandOmics platform works toward a world where one can foresee and possibly mitigate the occurrence of diseases that are either inherited or are at a major risk of developing. By focusing on clinical interpretation and reporting of genomic data, we can scan an individual’s genomic information and determine the likelihood of a person developing certain diseases,” says Chandru.

The core architecture of Strand’s products is a proprietary platform called AVADISTM, an acronym for Access, Visualize, Analyze, DIScover. These products include GeneSpring—a product for integrated biological research, StrandNGSTM—a pipeline package for Next Generation Sequencing data analysis from raw DNA sequence data alignment to variant calling and biological interpretation, iManageTM—a tool for large-scale biological image management, and a Virtual Liver to enable in silico toxicity screening.

The company’s GrammaticaTM is a proprietary natural

language processing engine honed for the last 8 years for text written in English. A dedicated team of over 45 scientists and clinicians manually curate the consolidated information read from Medline/Pubmed abstracts and full-length research articles into Strand’s proprietary database. This has enabled Strand to build a knowledge base of clinically relevant variants at a rate of 10,000 new variant references per month. Based on the proprietary platform’s streamlined report generation, pathologists

and physicians can make diagnoses and informed treatment decisions by combining the patient’s biology with the biological mechanisms of available drugs and those in ongoing clinical trials.

Strand has organically grown in the computational biology and bioinformatics sector, with more than 200 multi disciplinary scientists working together with an appreciation for both laboratory processes and the software development life cycle.

The company’s clientele comprise of more than 2,000 academic and pharma labs, molecular diagnostics and pathology labs, community hospitals and oncology

centers offering clinical genomics diagnostics which serve over 100,000 patients. The largest commercial adoption of genomics for tumor profiling in the world emerged from a unique case study conducted by Strand’s partnership with Health Care Global Enterprises in India. Using Strand’s clinical genomics solutions for oncology, which includes both cancer risk assessment from saliva DNA as well as molecular diagnosis, Strand and HCG together ran a pilot program on over 50 samples to demonstrate value to clinicians and patients. The results are very successful and HCG is in the process of making this profiling the standard of care for breast, ovarian, colorectal and lung cancers.

Strand’s NGS-based clinical diagnostics tests for cancer, cardiovascular and other diseases are driving the innovation to reduce costs and turnaround times by automating through the StrandOmics platform. “Strand is focused on fundamentally changing the diagnostics and treatment landscape. Our aim is to make genomic testing a part of routine medical care, thereby empowering clinicians to make more informed decisions and offering physicians, short and personalized patient reports,” concludes Dr. Chandru.

Strand is focused on fundamentally changing the diagnostics and treatment landscape

Strand Genomics Inc.Genomic Insights for Personalized Medical Diagnostics and Therapies

Vijay Chandru