Iterative Scopes Announces AI-Driven Data Sharing Agreement with Pfizer to Advance IBD Clinical Trials

Agreement seeks to deploy artificial intelligence to improve efficiency and outcomes of clinical trials for patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Iterative Scopes, a pioneer in precision medicine technologies for gastroenterology, announced today that it has entered into a data sharing agreement with Pfizer, a leader in innovative IBD research. The agreement aims to accelerate successful, efficient development of potential new treatments for patients suffering from IBD worldwide by standardizing endoscopic interpretation.

As part of the agreement, Pfizer will grant access to one of its IBD clinical trial databases, allowing Iterative Scopes to enrich its disease severity scoring algorithms.

Polina Golland, PhD, AI Chair of the Iterative Scopes Scientific Advisory Board and Professor, EECS & PI, MIT CSAIL at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said, “This agreement will enable Iterative Scopes to push our AI methods for IBD scoring to the next level by providing the team with a rich set of data. This new data will support development of next generation AI tools based on recent innovations in machine learning to improve the comprehensive interpretation of endoscopy videos and the accuracy of quantitative endoscopy scoring.”

Currently, disease severity scoring systems, such as the Mayo Endoscopic Score (MES), are used to meet inclusion criteria in IBD clinical trials and to measure primary and secondary endpoints. These metrics are highly subjective and dependent on physician experience and intuition. Moreover, they present patient recruitment and workflow challenges. Iterative Scopes’ computational algorithms resolve these challenges when integrated with existing colonoscopy imagery to determine clinical trial eligibility. The company’s computational software automates interpretation of colonoscopy videos, enabling clinical trial investigators to arrive at standardized MES scores for individual patients.

“We are excited to harness machine learning and computer vision to ultimately aid physicians and help them improve clinical outcomes for IBD patients earlier and with greater success,” said Jean-Pierre Schott, PhD, SVP of Engineering at Iterative Scopes. “This agreement will leverage certain Pfizer patient research along with the Iterative Scopes technological advancements to assess colon health faster and with greater granularity, and possibly improve the quality of life for thousands of patients.”

Iterative Scopes was founded in 2017 as a spin out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) by Dr. Jonathan Ng, a physician-entrepreneur, who developed the company’s foundational concepts while he was in school at MIT and Harvard. In December 2021, the company and its investors closed a $150 million Series B financing, which attracted a roster of A-list venture capitalists, big pharmaceutical companies’ venture arms, and individual leaders in healthcare.

About Iterative Scopes

Iterative Scopes is a pioneer in the application of artificial intelligence-based precision medicine for gastroenterology with the aim of helping to optimize clinical trials investigating treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The technology is also designed to potentially enhance colorectal cancer screenings. Its powerful, proprietary artificial intelligence and computer vision technologies have the potential to improve the accuracy and consistency of endoscopy readings. Iterative Scopes is initially applying these advances to impact polyp detection for colorectal cancer screenings and working to standardize disease severity characterization for inflammatory bowel disease. Longer term, the company plans to establish more meaningful endpoints for GI diseases, which may be better predictors of therapeutic response and disease outcomes. Spun out of MIT in 2017, the company is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.