GlaxoSmithKline Plans to Use Apple’s ResearchKit in Clinical Trials

Apple’s ResearchKit was announced at WWDC, an open-source framework to allow medical researchers to gather data easily and efficiently by utilizing apps on the iPhone, making the latter “a powerful tool for medical research.”

ResearchKit has now gained some major support by some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, according to BuzzFeed News. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced it will be using ResearchKit, while Purdue Pharma has similar plans as well, making them the first companies to do so. Gilead Sciences and Pfizer told BuzzFeed they have no intentions to use ResearchKit.

GSK says it is “currently working on integrating (ResearchKit) into clinical trials and planning to start in coming months.”

According to Apple executive Jeff Williams, the company is open working with any company willing to use ResearchKit to help make positive impacts on people’s lives:

“We’re open to working with anybody that is going to make an impact on people’s health,” he told BuzzFeed News in an interview last month. “So we’ve made ResearchKit open-source so Apple won’t even control who uses it. We will control what we put on our App Store, but we won’t control who uses it. And so I think the promise of using ResearchKit for development of drugs — if they’re lifesaving, I think that’s a positive thing.”

It’s true! We’re looking @ Apple’s #ResearchKit for clinical trials http://t.co/zZhLhXoKbf

— GSK (@GSK) July 10, 2015

Apple said the first apps signed up over 75,000 volunteers in first few months. You can learn more about the story behind ResearchKit by clicking here.