Berlin, Germany, 26 October 2017 - The HARMONY Alliance is an unparalleled medicine offensive to battle blood cancers by using Big Data analyses. At the 2nd General Assembly in Berlin, Germany, over 120 representatives from the HARMONY Alliance met to discuss the achievements, as well as the roadmap for the coming years.
One of the most important milestones that was jointly achieved, is the establishment of HARMONY’s Big Data platform. Public and private organizations will contribute data on most hematological cancers. The use of a common data model that adheres to the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data-sharing principles will allow analysis at an unprecedented scale to take place. This will contribute to a better understanding of these diseases, leading to the evolution of improved targeted therapies that will benefit patients.
“Public and private partners are bringing together their best people, data, and knowledge to solve key questions on hematological cancers. These challenges can only be met by applying the most advanced technology,” states Michel Van Speybroeck, Director of Data Sciences at Janssen Pharmaceutical. “It is wonderful to see from the front-line how this is being shaped by the HARMONY Alliance.”
The Alliance’s short-term focus is three-fold: offering an ethical and legal framework on the use of medical data, analyzing the first data on the platform, and defining standard sets of outcomes.
About HARMONY
The HARMONY Alliance, an IMI project, consists of 51 partners and brings together key stakeholders from a broad spectrum of disciplines from 11 European countries.
About the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)
IMI is Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. IMI supports collaborative research projects and builds networks of industrial and academic experts in order to boost pharmaceutical innovation in Europe. IMI is a joint undertaking between the European Union and the pharmaceutical industry association EFPIA. HARMONY has received funding from IMI 2 Joint Undertaking and is listed under grant agreement No. 116026.
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Public-private partnership for Big Data in Hematology
HARMONY and HARMONY PLUS are funded through the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. Funding is received from the IMI 2 Joint Undertaking and is listed under grant agreement for HARMONY No. 116026 and grant agreement for HARMONY PLUS No. 945406. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
HARMONY Coordination Office
Institute of Biomedical Research of
Salamanca (IBSAL)
Salamanca, Spain
HARMONY Communications
European Hematology Association (EHA)
The Hague, The Netherlands
