The first-ever platform trial for ALS is set to kick off this month and is led by investigators at the Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS at Mass General Hospital
Aural Analytics’ award-winning clinical trials platform will provide speech collection and speech-based digital endpoints for the HEALEY ALS Platform trial study regimens
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. & BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Aural Analytics, Inc., a privately held digital health company developing the world’s most advanced suite of clinical-grade speech analytics, announced today it has entered into an agreement with Mass General Hospital’s Sean M. Healey & AMG Center for ALS to power speech collection and speech-based digital endpoints for the platform trial. The HEALEY ALS Platform Trial is the first-ever platform trial for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), which includes substantial financial support from the Healey Center, Tackle ALS, the ALS Association, and ALS Finding a Cure, and provides access to 54 expert ALS clinical trial Northeast ALS Consortium (NEALS) sites across the United States.
The platform trial is expected to greatly accelerate therapy development by allowing investigators to test more drugs, increase patient access to trials, reduce trial costs, and quickly and efficiently evaluate the effectiveness of multiple therapies simultanously. Shared infrastructure, common data and sample collection processes, and central governance within the platform trial will lead to operational efficiencies and time and cost savings.
Speech changes in ALS patients have been well-studied and speech represents an important biomarker for disease progression, patient stratification, and early detection of symptoms. Aural Analytics’ software architecture and suite of analytics are designed to meet the challenges of a multi-site, multi-sponsor, multi-language and multi-target trial. Aural Analytics’ speech-based digital endpoints have been used extensively in ALS clinical trials – both in clinic and at home – to measure clinically-relevant speech changes. The use of remote collection tools, like Aural Analytics’ Speech Vitals mobile application, significantly decreases the burden of patients with ALS, a disease that causes the progressive degeneration of motor neurons resulting in progressive muscle weakness and atrophy.
“Aural Analytics exists to be a catalyst for improving the lives of patients with neurological health issues. We are honored to be working alongside Mass General Hospital and the Sean M. Healey Center serving the ALS population,” said Daniel Jones, co-founder and chief executive officer of Aural Analytics, inc. “We are committed to, and share the long-term goal of the platform trial.”
“Our shared goal is to bring new therapies forward faster for people with ALS,” said Dr. Merit Cudkowicz, Director of the Healey center for ALS and chief of neurology at Mass General. “Speech analytics technology has the potential to provide important insights about the effects of treatments in the platform trial.”
Background on ALS
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS, is the most prevalent adult-onset progressive motor neuron disease, affecting approximately 30,000 people in the U.S., and an estimated 500,000 people worldwide. There are currently three FDA therapies approved specifically for treating ALS—riluzole, nuedexta and edaravone.
About Aural Analytics, Inc.
Aural Analytics is a digital health company building the world’s most advanced clinical-grade speech analytics platform for neurological health conditions across the lifespan. The company is founded on nearly three decades of NIH and NSF funded research in the field of speech neuroscience and is backed by dozens of high-caliber scientific publications. Aural Analytics’ suite of mobile-first, patient- centric applications are easy to use, secure, and provide robust, clinically-relevant, interpretable and validated metrics reflecting the neurological health of its users. Currently available in 12 languages (android and iOS), the company has worked in large research study settings, pharmaceutical clinical trials and other clinical applications. The company has won several awards for their work in the field, including the prestigious Global SCRIP Award for Best Technology Development in Clinical Trials. The Company maintains headquarters in Scottsdale, AZ. For more information, please visit auralanalytics.com or follow Aural Analytics on Twitter, LinkedIn, Medium and Facebook.
