SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Verily, an Alphabet company, today announced the appointment of Amy Abernethy, M.D., Ph.D. as President of Verily’s clinical research business. Verily’s clinical research started with the Baseline program, a suite of studies using patient-centric tools for research data collection. Today’s announcement foreshadows Verily’s planned expansion into a full-scale clinical evidence generation platform supporting a broad range of clinical trials and real-world evidence (RWE) studies. As President of this business unit, Dr. Abernethy will oversee this overall product vision and Verily’s related clinical research portfolio.
Dr. Abernethy was most recently Principal Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the agency’s acting Chief Information Officer. In just over two years with FDA, Dr. Abernethy is credited with having catalyzed enduring changes in the way the FDA uses data as well as advancing FDA’s work in RWE and personalized medicine. She also spearheaded FDA’s shift toward cloud-based data interoperability, thereby streamlining the agency’s interaction with the health data ecosystem as outlined in the agency’s technology and data modernization action plans.
“There is no one better positioned to catapult Verily’s clinical research business into its next important phase than Amy, with her understanding of clinical practice, research, data science and the evolving regulatory environment,” said Andy Conrad, Chief Executive Officer and founder of Verily. “Amy has been at the forefront of the use of clinical data to accelerate clinical trials and enable the uptake of real-world evidence. Her focus on improving the efficiency of the development and availability of new medicines aligns with our goals to transform clinical research by making it easier and faster to run clinical studies.”
“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of improving the clinical trials process, breaking down barriers to participation and speeding access to medicines,” said Dr. Abernethy. “Verily is committed to accelerating and improving clinical research through the smart use of data, creative collaboration and unrivaled technical capabilities. Combined with their healthcare and device initiatives, Verily presents an unparalleled opportunity to improve patient care, which has been my driving force in every role I have played in the healthcare ecosystem.”
Prior to her role at the FDA, Dr. Abernethy was Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Oncology of Flatiron Health, a healthcare technology and services company focused on accelerating cancer research and improving patient care that is now part of the Roche Group.
Before joining Flatiron, Dr. Abernethy was Professor of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and directed the Center for Learning Health Care in the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke Cancer Care Research Program in the Duke Cancer Institute. For more than two decades, she has pioneered the development of technology platforms to spur novel advancements in cancer care and clinical care more generally, including the development of systems by which health data can support tracking patient care, drug development, personalized medicine and scientific discovery.
Dr. Abernethy is a hematologist/oncologist and palliative medicine physician who has authored more than 500 publications. Her appointment is the latest in a series of senior executive hires at Verily, including Kerrie Peraino, Chief People Officer; Lisa Greenbaum, Chief Revenue Officer; Drew Panayiotou, Chief Marketing Officer; and Preston Simons, Chief Information Officer.
About Baseline
Verily’s interdisciplinary team developed Baseline Platforms, designed to engage patients and clinicians in research, make it easier and faster to run clinical studies and collect high quality, comprehensive data for all types of clinical research including traditional clinical trials and more pragmatic real-world studies. For more information, please visit projectbaseline.com.
About Verily
Launched in 2015, Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet focused on life sciences and healthcare. Verily’s mission is to make the world’s health data useful so that people enjoy healthier lives. Verily develops tools and devices to collect, organize and activate health data, and creates interventions to prevent and manage disease. Verily partners with leading life sciences, medical device, and government organizations, using deep hardware, software, scientific, and healthcare expertise to enable faster development, meaningful advances, and deployment at scale. For more information, please visit www.verily.com.
