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When Sirj Goswami was pursuing his PhD at UCSF in pharmacogenomics and quantitative pharmacology, clinicians from the University’s bone marrow transplant department approached him and his colleague Ron Keizer—who was also conducting pharmacology research at UCSF—for help. The clinicians wanted to develop a way to individualize the dosage of a highly toxic chemotherapy drug, Busulfan—used to treat children with leukemia as part of the child’s conditioning therapy in preparation for their bone marrow transplant. Pediatric patients are especially vulnerable to toxic therapies given that high exposure to chemotherapies during their developmental phase can impact their quality of life. Oncologists also knew that the current standard regimen overexposed the patients to toxic levels of chemotherapy and thus, tasked Keizer and Goswami with developing a novel method to optimize drug dosing. The duo created a sophisticated mathematical model to help those clinicians individualize drug dosing for every patient. They then turned the model into cloud-based software that UCSF’s oncology team could utilize at the point-of-care.
A year later, Goswami and Keizer left UCSF and recruited Ranvir Mangat, a drug development expert, to join them in founding InsightRX. The company’s vision was grand but clear: to help healthcare practitioners treat each patient individually by personalizing dosing regimens for complex medications, maximizing treatment efficacy and minimizing drug-related toxicity. “Our platform leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and quantitative pharmacology to help clinicians improve patient care,” says Goswami, CEO of InsightRX.
The company’s core product, InsightRX Nova, seamlessly integrates with hospitals’ electronic health records (EHR), enabling physicians and pharmacists to determine an individualized dosing regimen for a particular drug. For their customers, the InsightRX Nova platform is a goto tool in their armamentarium. “All of the information that is needed to individualize dosing by simulating the patient’s pharmacological and clinical response is pulled out of the EHR in seconds,” explains Goswami.“With a single click, a provider has access to all the relevant information they need to evaluate and individualize therapeutic regimens.”
While InsightRX started with one drug in bone marrow transplant, can now individualize therapy for over 40 different drugs across a variety of therapeutic areas including systemic antibiotics, solid organ transplant, and oncology. InsightRX Nova’s precision dosing information feeds directly into InsightRX Apollo, the company’s real-time predictive analytics dashboard. InsightRX Apollo allows hospital administrators, that allows hospital administrators to monitor clinical outcomes, assess treatment guidelines, and comply with Joint Commission standards.
InsightRX is empowering medical centers to determine the right quantity of medication for patients. One of InsightRX’s clients saved over a million dollars during a five-month pilot period for a single antibiotic. The client used InsightRX’s platform to reduce the incidence of vancomycinassociated acute kidney injury—a nephrotoxic event that occurs when a patient is exposed to toxic levels of vancomycin. InsightRX prospectively compared the use of InsightRX to the hospital’s “baseline” data collected prior to the start of the study. “We compared the post-analysis results with the pre-analysis outcomes and noticed that we had reduced the incidence of acute kidney injury significantly, after which the client implemented our platform across their entire hospital system,” says Goswami.
We envision InsightRX being the leader in leveraging artificial intelligence to develop digital therapeutics which augment medicine at the point of care
InsightRX is empowering medical centers to determine the right quantity of medication for patients. One of InsightRX’s clients saved over a million dollars during a five-month pilot period for a single antibiotic. The client used InsightRX’s platform to reduce the incidence of vancomycinassociated acute kidney injury—a nephrotoxic event that occurs when a patient is exposed to toxic levels of vancomycin. InsightRX prospectively compared the use of InsightRX to the hospital’s “baseline” data collected prior to the start of the study. “We compared the post-analysis results with the pre-analysis outcomes and noticed that we had reduced the incidence of acute kidney injury significantly, after which the client implemented our platform across their entire hospital system,” says Goswami.
Today, InsightRX has amassed a large customer base in the U.S. and Europe and plans to expand across the globe. The company also has partnerships with biotechnology and pharma companies to improve treatment administration of complex drugs. Their portfolio of solutions are currently being utilized in clinical studies funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). “We are also developing digital therapeutics to augment medicine at the point-of-care and envision being a leader in leveraging AI to improve clinical outcomes across several therapeutic areas. We want to accelerate and support the healthcare industry’s adoption of evidencebased care,” concludes Goswami.
Company
InsightRX
Management
Sirj Goswami, CEO & Co-Founder, Ron Keizer, CSO & Co-Founder and Ranvir Mangat, COO & Co-Founder, InsightRX
Description
Provides a precision medicine platform to help healthcare
providers individualize drug dosage
InsightRX News
Mount Nittany Medical Center Increases Accuracy and Efficiency of Vancomycin Dosing Using InsightRX Model-Informed Precision Dosing Platform
InsightRX Receives Growth Financing
InsightRX, a San Francisco, CA-based software company leveraging quantitative pharmacology and artificial intelligence (AI), received a Growth financing form CIBC Innovation Banking.
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and development efforts.
Led by CEO Sirj Goswami, InsightRX applies patient-specific data and quantitative models to tailor dosing for complex treatments, including antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, and immunosuppressants. The company also employs AI to empower data scientists in analyzing clinical trial data, aiding in trial design, understanding dose-exposure-response relationships, and refining dosing strategies for regulatory submissions.
Its platform provides an individualized understanding of a patient’s response to treatment, enabling medical professionals to bring new drugs to market efficiently, improve treatment effectiveness, and provide direct benefits to patients.
Commenting on the news, Sirj Goswami said: “We are proud that InsightRX is leading the transition from the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in drug dosing to a more individualized treatment paradigm that considers the unique characteristics of patient subgroups and the specific needs of each patient. This shift is not just pivotal for patient care but also for the introduction of new drugs to the market. To help us achieve our strategic vision of transforming patient care, we worked with CIBC for the necessary financing to accelerate our growth. CIBC showed intellectual curiosity about the intricacies of our business and were thoughtful in their approach.”
The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and development efforts.
Led by CEO Sirj Goswami, InsightRX applies patient-specific data and quantitative models to tailor dosing for complex treatments, including antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, and immunosuppressants. The company also employs AI to empower data scientists in analyzing clinical trial data, aiding in trial design, understanding dose-exposure-response relationships, and refining dosing strategies for regulatory submissions.
Its platform provides an individualized understanding of a patient’s response to treatment, enabling medical professionals to bring new drugs to market efficiently, improve treatment effectiveness, and provide direct benefits to patients.
Commenting on the news, Sirj Goswami said: “We are proud that InsightRX is leading the transition from the traditional ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach in drug dosing to a more individualized treatment paradigm that considers the unique characteristics of patient subgroups and the specific needs of each patient. This shift is not just pivotal for patient care but also for the introduction of new drugs to the market. To help us achieve our strategic vision of transforming patient care, we worked with CIBC for the necessary financing to accelerate our growth. CIBC showed intellectual curiosity about the intricacies of our business and were thoughtful in their approach.”
SAN FRANCISCO - InsightRX, announced results of a data analysis by Mount Nittany Medical Center showing how deploying InsightRX's Bayesian software integrated with PINC AI™ Clinical Surveillance powered by TheraDoc® for monitoring vancomycin dosing helped increase efficiency and optimized pharmacist workflow compared to industry benchmarks.
The findings from the analysis, which visualized the rise in the percentage of patients achieving the target range for their area under the curve (AUC), were recently presented at the Premier Breakthroughs Conference and Exposition held in Nashville.
Located in State College, Pennsylvania, Mount Nittany Health oversees Mount Nittany Medical Center, a 260-bed acute care facility featuring a 24-bed intensive care unit and a 61-bed emergency department (ED). With approximately 55,000 ED visits annually, Mount Nittany Medical Center has chosen to implement Bayesian modeling utilizing InsightRX's model-informed precision dosing (MIPD) software platform to calculate AUC for vancomycin.
Vancomycin is a commonly utilized antibiotic in hospital settings for treating infections. Maintaining vancomycin levels within the target range for individual patients is crucial, as deviations can lead to acute nephrotoxicity and acute kidney injury (AKI), resulting in deteriorating patient health, extended hospital stays, and increased healthcare costs. Research indicates that AKIs affect nearly half a million patients in the United States each year, with costs ranging from $4.7 billion to $24.0 billion annually across the healthcare system.
In the third quarter of 2021, Mount Nittany Medical Center adopted InsightRX's Nova precision-dosing platform, integrating it with TheraDoc. Over a span of six quarters, the medical center achieved a 12-percentage-point increase in the proportion of patients whose AUC fell within the target range. Moreover, during this period, Mount Nittany Medical Center outperformed InsightRX's overall organization target attainment averages.
In the fourth quarter of 2022, only 1 percent of patients experienced AKIs within 48 hours of initiating vancomycin therapy, a rate well below the industry's typical range of 8 percent to 16 percent.
"We're thrilled with how our data compares against industry benchmarks," said Amanda Holyk, PharmD, clinical pharmacy supervisor and critical care pharmacist at Mount Nittany Medical Center, who presented results of the comparative analysis at Breakthroughs. "And we've been able to successfully utilize world-class precision dosing solutions for the benefit of our staff and ultimately our patient population, who can receive award-winning care close to home, similar to large academic medical centers and tertiary facilities."
In recognition of their contributions to implementing Bayesian dosing software, InsightRX, to optimize vancomycin dosing, Lisa Holyk, along with Hayden Hayward, PharmD, and Jessica McDonald, PharmD, all from the Pharmacy Department at Mount Nittany Medical Center, were honored with induction into the 2022 CHART Institute Patient Safety Hall of Fame.
Beyond cost savings resulting from reduced incidences of acute kidney injuries (AKIs), the Model-Informed Precision Dosing (MIPD) approach facilitated by the InsightRX platform has led to improved workflow efficiency for hospital pharmacists, allowing for a more streamlined weekend staffing model.
InsightRX's Nova MIPD platform, hosted in the cloud, harnesses patient-specific data, pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) models, and Bayesian forecasting techniques to gain insights into each patient's unique pharmacological profile. This information, in turn, guides informed treatment decisions.
"Mount Nittany Medical Center's success increasing the accuracy of vancomycin dosing demonstrates how MIPD can help improve clinical outcomes and operational efficiency while reducing costs associated with AKIs," said Sirj Goswami, PhD, CEO and co-founder of InsightRX. "We are excited by the results of Mount Nittany Medical Center's comparative analysis and look forward to continuing our partnership."