Iqvia quietly purchased UK-based NLP provider Linguamatics

Per Linguamatics’ website​: “Linguamatics, an Iqvia company, delivers market-leading NLP​-based ​AI ​solutions for high-value knowledge discovery and decision support from text.”​

Iqvia confirmed the acquisition was completed in January 2019. No further details about the terms of the deal will be disclosed. 

Jon Resnick, president of Iqvia's real-world and analytics solutions division, where Linguamatics has been integrated, said the addition of Linguamatics’ AI-based natural language processing (NLP) solution enhances the company's capabilities.

“Iqvia is committed to helping life science companies deliver real value from the potential artificial intelligence and machine learning. Unstructured data is a critical component, providing access to rich health care information most AI/ML solutions never access,"​ Resnick told us.

He added, "We are excited to continue to prove that AI/ML will ultimately advance health care.” ​

Linguamatics was not able to provide any additional details beyond stating that Linguamatics is now an Iqvia company.

Linguamatics’ text-mining software​

Linguamatics​’ AI-based NLP text-mining software has been used by several of the big pharma players, including Sanofi, which used the technology to process various literature sources as part of its multiple sclerosis drugs (MS) biomarker project.

Sanofi began evaluating NLP vendors in 2011, conducting a thorough review of providers, including Linguamatics. Dongyu Liu, associate director of translational sciences at Sanofi, said the company “found that Linguamatics had a very good NLP engine and the flexibility to apply different ontologies was very important to us.”​

“It's easy to plug in any ontology or dictionary and you can extract any domain knowledge. We have been working with them since them,”​ he told us while discussing Sanofi’s use of NLP.

According to the company, it is using NLP and text analytics in several spaces, including target identification and prioritization, drug repurposing, interpretation of genes/proteins identified by ‘omics experiments, and full patent text mining for new targets.

Linguamatics’ platform also recently was recognized for its ability to generate insights from unstructured and semi-structured data, receiving Frost & Sullivan’s Global Product Leadership Award​ in December 2018.

New products from Iqvia​

Earlier this week, Iqvia launched a new cloud-based regulatory information management solution – RIM Smart – designed to leverage AI and machine learning (ML).

The company also last month announced the release​ of a new software-as-a-service (SaaS) safety platform designed to reduce the cost and complexity of pharmacovigilance activities.  

Built from the ground up as a cloud-based solution on the Salesforce architecture, the platform leverages NLP and other advanced technology, such as optical character recognition.

Joe Rymsza, vice president, pharmacovigilance and regulatory technology solutions at Iqvia, told us at the time that the platform would allow customers "to do advanced analytics on really massive quantities of information.”​

The service provider has been rolling out a series of technology solutions​ aimed at improving the clinical trials processes and reducing patient burden. In late 2018​ the company expanded its alliance with Salesforce – first announced in April 2017​ – to release new SaaS and technology-enabled solutions.