Sensyne Health, a British AI developer, has signed an initial two-year agreement with Bayer AG to collaborate on the clinical development of new treatments for cardiovascular disease using Sensyne Health’s proprietary clinical AI technology platform as well as its trove of U.K. health records.

Sensyne is collaborating with NHS divisions to put patient information into a database that companies and entrepreneurs can analyze to develop new products and treatment approaches that will benefit the agency’s patients. 

The Bayer deal, focused on cardiovascular disease, is the first announced so far by the fledgling data company since it went public about a year ago. The initial agreement will generate revenues for Sensyne Health of £5 million across the two-year collaboration. Sensyne Health’s partner NHS trusts will receive a 4% share of all revenues generated by Sensyne Health under this collaboration.

“We set out expectations at our IPO to do a big deal within 24 months and it’s nice to deliver it 12 months early,” Sensyne Chief Executive Officer Paul Drayson said in an interview. The company will continue to look for new partners, he said.

Heart disease, one of the world’s leading killers, has been identified as an area of priority research, according to Drayson, the former U.K. science minister who founded Sensyne. The disease currently affects 7 million people in the U.K. and accounts for one in four premature deaths, according to the NHS. The development of improved treatments for cardiovascular disease is challenging due to the very high cost of clinical trials in this area and investment in cardiovascular drug development has declined over the past twenty years as a result.

Bayer’s scientists won’t see the NHS data itself. Sensyne’s system protects patient privacy by using records stripped of identifying information, and provides only the analyses to customers.

So far, Sensyne has signed up six of the NHS’s 150 hospital divisions, known as trusts, representing about 3 million patients.

Real-world evidence from Sensyne Health’s clinical AI analysis of anonymized patient data has the potential to generate new insights that could improve patient outcomes, support clinical staff, and accelerate the discovery and development of new medicines to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease, including heart failure and stroke, the vendor said.