Tel Aviv-based QuantHealth is on a roll. In August 2024, it surpasses the 100th mark in simulated clinical trials with an 85% accuracy rate and reported cost savings upwards of $215 million for one major pharmaceutical partner. In March of the same year, Fast Company recognized QuantHealth as one of the most innovative companies in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. And in January, Accenture announced that it was investing in the firm.
New hires
Q&A with Orr Inbarr, QuantHealth CEO
How do the new Chief Architect and CISO roles fit into QuantHealth’s broader vision of building an ‘AI operating system’ for clinical trials?
Inbarr: By focusing on the scalability of our platform and the security of sensitive data, we aim to expand QuantHealth’s impact within the pharmaceutical industry. We aim to improve our current accuracy rate of 85% and enhance our platform’s capabilities to drive greater efficiencies. In their new roles, Sharon and Siwar will help us further our platform capabilities to attract new partners looking for ways to safely reduce the financial burden of the drug development process, similar to the $215 million saved by one of our existing partners.
What specific gaps or needs are Sharon Dagan and Siwar El Assad addressing in QuantHealth’s platform roadmap?
Inbarr: Due to the large size of pharmaceutical organizations and the high-risk nature of healthcare, technology providers like ourselves face a challenging standard when seeking enterprise-grade partnerships. Sharon and Siwar will play crucial roles in filling any gaps needed to enhance our Clinical Development Operating System platform, making it more accurate, scalable, interoperable, and secure. Their efforts will enable us to provide innovative solutions for our partners’ most pressing challenges, building on our already proven successful solution.
Given that you already have eight of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies as partners, can you comment on how you envision that Sharon and Siwar will help QuantHealth continue to build traction with Big Pharma and beyond?
Inbarr: By further building our platform to support large-scale, enterprise-level deployments, Sharon and Siwar will help us translate our partners’ needs into actionable insights to improve our platform. For example, the industry is prioritizing cybersecurity to ensure the secure exchange of data and other valuable information. Siwar’s extensive experience in cybersecurity and data protection will be invaluable in enhancing our system to enable safer data exchanges, helping us address concerns, and building greater trust with our partners.
Now, QuantHealth is adding a dedicated chief architect and chief information security officer to executive ranks. Sharon Dagan, with more 30 years of software development and systems engineering experience, joins as Chief Architect from Totango, where he enhanced system architecture and pioneered AI features. Siwar El Assad, previously at Check Point Software Technologies, steps in as Chief Information Security Officer, bringing defensive and offensive security expertise.
Both executives emphasize the critical intersection of AI innovation and enterprise-grade infrastructure in pharmaceutical development. “AI is rapidly transforming how drugs are developed and brought to market,” notes Dagan in a press release. “My focus will be on building a robust, modular platform that supports large-scale, enterprise-level deployments.”
El Assad addressed the security requirements of AI-driven pharmaceutical research. She emphasized that protecting sensitive data remains central to maintaining partner trust, noting that her role will focus on “ensuring that our security infrastructure meets and exceeds industry standards” while safeguarding clinical trial data integrity.
Significant experience
Before working at Totango, Dagan spent 25 years working at IBM where he served as chief architect for the Ministry of Defense Industry, guiding the design of systems for big data intelligence analysis and NLP. His work at Totango involved practical AI implementation experience, where he led system architecture redesign and guided the delivery of their first AI-based feature.
El Assad’s security expertise spans multiple domains, having worked at leading cybersecurity firms including Check Point Software Technologies and Varonis, where she specialized in network security and data protection.
Filed Under: clinical trials, Drug Discovery, machine learning and AI
