Clinical trials are better, faster, cheaper with big data

"One of the most difficult parts of my job is enrolling patients into studies," says Nicholas Borys, chief medical officer for Lawrenceville, N.J., biotechnology company Celsion, which develops next-generation chemotherapy and immunotherapy agents for liver and ovarian cancers and certain types of brain tumors. Borys estimates that fewer than 10% of cancer patients are enrolled in clinical trials. "If we could get that up to 20% or 30%, we probably could have had several cancers conquered by now." Clinical trials test new drugs, devices, and procedures to determine whether they're safe and effective before they're approved for general use. But the path from study design to approval is long, winding, and expensive.