Oracle and AstraZeneca partner to advance AI and real-world data in clinical trials

Oracle and AstraZeneca have announced a collaboration to explore the use of AI and RWD to support clinical trial recruitment, evidence generation and the application of research findings in routine healthcare.

The Baseline

• Oracle and AstraZeneca are collaborating to explore AI and real-world data applications across clinical research and healthcare.
• Initial priorities include improving clinical trial recruitment, supporting earlier diagnosis, and integrating research evidence into routine care.
• The companies plan to establish shared governance and evaluation measures to assess potential applications across therapeutic areas.

Oracle has announced a new strategic partnership with AstraZeneca to advance the use of AI and real-world data (RWD) in clinical research and patient care. Under a non-binding agreement, the companies intend to combine AstraZeneca’s scientific and therapeutic expertise with Oracle’s health data, cloud infrastructure, AI, analytics, and clinical workflow capabilities. Initial activities will focus on identifying potential applications in clinical research and examining how evidence generated through routine healthcare could inform future studies and patient care.

The companies plan to investigate whether AI-enabled applications could help healthcare professionals identify potentially eligible patients earlier, with the aim of improving recruitment efficiency and expanding access to clinical trials.

Initial therapeutic areas under consideration include:

• Oncology
• Cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases
• Respiratory and immunology
• Rare diseases

Pascal Soriot (Chief Executive Officer, AstraZeneca) commented on the potential applications across medicine development:

“Combining AstraZeneca’s world class science with Oracle’s deep data and technology expertise, we can help clinicians identify patients sooner, optimize clinical trials, and generate evidence continuously across the lifecycle of a medicine.”

Beyond recruitment, the companies intend to explore a continuous learning model in which evidence from clinical research and routine care could inform future study design, safety monitoring, and clinical decision-making. This would involve examining how research findings could be integrated into existing clinical workflows and how routinely collected health data could support further evidence generation.

The collaboration will also consider potential applications for supporting earlier diagnosis and helping patients access appropriate care. Anne-Claire Gerbaldi (Chief Digital, Data and AI Officer, AstraZeneca) described the potential for AI to connect information across clinical research and healthcare to “support smarter clinical trials, strengthen safety monitoring, and help ensure patients are diagnosed sooner and receive the right care.”

Oracle would contribute data, cloud infrastructure, AI, and clinical workflow technologies. Seema Verma (Executive Vice President and General Manager, Oracle Health and Life Sciences) emphasized the role of healthcare systems in governing the proposed applications:

“This collaboration has the potential to help health systems identify eligible patients sooner, broaden access to clinical trials, and generate evidence that supports the next decision, all under the governance of the health systems delivering care.”

To assess the proposed applications, Oracle and AstraZeneca plan to establish shared governance arrangements, reusable technical components, and agreed outcome measures. These would provide a basis for evaluating results and determining whether successful approaches could be extended to additional therapeutic areas and geographical regions. Specific applications and implementation timelines have not yet been confirmed.