Pharma champing at the (Fit)bit

Digital tech companies like 23andMe and FitBit are hot these days — and not only with consumers. Pharma is making wide-ranging investments in the field, all in the hunt for valuable data that can help them find novel drug targets.

STAT’s Megan Thielking chatted with the head of Pfizer’s big data analysis group, Christopher Boone, who described the current environment as an “arms race, so to speak.”

He’s envisioning a not-so-distant future in which clinical trial protocols could be reimagined — in which real-world evidence, drawn from digital health companies, could help supplant data generated within the confines of a controlled study.